Measuring the quality of nursing care to Alzheimer's patients

Facilities that provide care to Alzheimer's disease patients are under unrelenting pressure to document the quality of nursing care they provide to various stakeholders. Unfortunately, little consensus exists nor is guidance given as to how to measure the quality of nursing care. Regulations and standards exist but are seldom translated into systematic outcome measures that assist nurses and facilities to measure, report, and manage the quality of care they provide to residents in general and Alzheimer's patients in particular. This article offers practical advice on conceptualizing quality of nursing care to Alzheimer's patients and the selection of outcome measures to collect, analyze, use, and report quality of nursing care data.