Critically evaluate the role of the registered nurse in ensuring the delivery of safe effective quality care that reflects recognised benchmarks

The resulting framework comprises seven domains representing nurses’ responsibilities for healthcare quality: (a) Management of the Environment; (b) Promotion of Safety; (c) Evidence Based Practice; (d) Medical and Technical Competence; (e) Person Centred Care; (f) Positive Interpersonal Behaviours; and (g) Clinical Leadership and Governance. Nurses’ descriptions of their responsibilities for healthcare quality validated the domains and provided examples of how they are operationalised in practice. No new domains or elements of practice were identified in the focus groups or literature.

Discussion and conclusion

The seven-domain framework to describe nurses’ responsibilities for healthcare quality has content validity and provides the foundation for an instrument to determine nurses’ beliefs about their responsibilities for healthcare quality. Future research is required to investigate coherence between nurses’ beliefs and professional and organisational expectations of nurses’ responsibilities for safeguarding healthcare quality, and to measure change in perceptions of responsibilities as a result of interventions