In most clinical settings, nurses are involved in projects to improve the quality, safety, and value of health care. Some of these are unit based, whereas others start small and then expand to multiple units and across the health system. These projects are not done until the findings are disseminated, not only within the organization but also more broadly so others can learn about practices that improve or do not improve the quality of care.
The Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) were developed to guide the reporting of quality improvement (QI) studies (Ogrinc et al., 2015). They can be used when describing projects being trialed on a unit to full-scale implementation across a health system. SQUIRE will guide you in writing a report or manuscript that is accurate and complete. The SQUIRE 1.0 guidelines were first developed in 2008 but have just been updated. The revised SQUIRE 2.0, in my opinion, are less complex and easier to use than the initial version.
The first part of your report should include a description of the problem that led to the QI project: Why did you start this project? In the introduction, you should describe the local problem you were experiencing and specific aim of the QI project. If you are writing a manuscript, this is the section in which you summarize the literature and prior studies related to the problem. For example, Trail-Mahan, Heisler, and Katica (2015) described the need for improving pain management, barriers to effective pain management, and nature of their local problem confirmed by low patient satisfaction with pain management scores. The aim of their QI project was to develop multifaceted, patient-centered approaches to improve pain management. The SQUIRE guidelines recommend that the next section of your report or manuscript describes the methods you used. This section answers a second question important in reporting QI: What did you do? The Methods include a description of the setting, intervention (with enough details for readers to replicate it in their own settings), and measures to study the processes and outcomes of the intervention (Oermann & Hays, 2016; Ogrinc et al., 2015). In Trail-Mahan et al.'s study, the setting was a large health care system, and the intervention was a bundle of six best nursing practices for pain management. The next section presents the results, answering the question: What did you find? In the example of the pain management project, there was significant improvement in Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems pain management composite scores (p < .05). In the final section of your report or manuscript, you should discuss the implications: What do they mean? This is an important section because, in it, you can explain how readers might use the findings (and interventions) in their own setting.
As you plan in your next QI project, refer to the SQUIRE to ensure you record the information you will need later for dissemination and follow these guidelines in writing up your report. Remember this: Your project is not done until findings are disseminated.
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