As the largest group of health care professionals, nurses contribute in
positive and negative ways to the health care quality problem. Nurses
have intimate knowledge of patient needs, and the continuous interactions nurses maintain with patients and families uniquely position them
to positively influence their hospital experiences and resultant outcomes.
In fact, the IHI’s Transforming Care at the Bedside initiative supports
that “RNs play a central role in ensuring the quality of hospital care”
.While few reports were found
in the professional literature regarding poor nurse quality, perceptions
of a decline in quality among hospital nurses and patients have risen in
recent years.