Evaluating the impact of a quality care-metric on public health nursing practice: protocol for a mixed methods study.

AIM: To establish, implement and evaluate the impact of a quality care-metric developed to measure public health nursing practice.

BACKGROUND: Measurement of care practices plays an integral role in quality improvement and promotes positive change in healthcare delivery. Quality care-metrics has been identified as a means of effectively measuring public health nursing practice. Public health nurses in Ireland are 'all-purpose' generalist community-based nurses caring for people across the lifespan, in defined geographical areas, employed by the Health Service Executive. In the public health nurse's child and maternal health role, the 'primary visit' (postnatal visit) has been identified as the most important contact a public health nurse has with a mother and her new baby.

DESIGN: Mixed methods using a sequential multiphase design.

METHODS: This study involves three phases. The first phase will include focus group and individual interviews with key healthcare professionals and new mothers, using purposively chosen sampling. Thematic analysis of data will identify key components for the development of a quality care-metric. Phase two will be a RAND appropriateness survey with a panel of experts, to develop and validate the quality care-metric. The third phase will involve implementation and evaluation of the quality care-metric. Descriptive and inferential statistics will be completed using SPSS version 21. Funding for this research study was approved in December 2013.

CONCLUSION: This study will evaluate the impact of introducing a quality care-metric into public health nursing practice. Results will illuminate the quality of public health nursing practice in relation to the primary visit.