An Audit of Nursing Documentation at Three Public Hospitals in Jamaica

Purpose Nursing documentation provides an important indicator of the quality of care provided for hospitalized patients. This study assessed the quality of nursing documentation on medical wards at three hospitals in Jamaica. Methods This cross‐sectional study audited a multilevel stratified sample of 245 patient records from three type B hospitals. An audit instrument which assessed nursing documentation of client history, biological data, client assessment, nursing standards, discharge planning, and teaching facilitated data collection. Descriptive statistics were conducted using IBM SPSS, Version 19 (IBM Inc., Armonk, NY, USA). Findings Records from three hospitals (Hospital 1, n = 119, 48.6%; Hospital 2, n = 56, 22.9%; Hospital 3, n = 70, 28.6%) were audited. Documented evidence of the patient's chief complaint (81.6%), history of present illness (78.8%), past health (79.2%), and family health (11.0%) were noted; however, less than a third of the dockets audited recorded adequate assessment data (e.g., occupation or living accommodations of patients). The audit noted 90% of records had a physical assessment completed within 24 hr of admission and entries timed, dated, and signed by a nurse. Less than 5% of dockets had evidence of patient teaching, and 13.5% had documented evidence of discharge planning conducted within 72 hr of admission. Conclusions This study highlights the weakness in nursing documentation and the need for increased training and continued monitoring of nursing documentation at the hospitals studied. Additional research regarding the factors that affect nursing documentation practice could prove useful. Clinical Relevance The study provides valuable information for the development of strategic risk management programs geared at improving the quality of care delivered to clients and presents an opportunity for nurse leaders to implement structured interventions geared at improving nursing documentation in Jamaica. In light of Jamaica's epidemiologic transition of chronic diseases, gaps in nurses’ documentation of client assessment, patient teaching, and discharge planning should be addressed with urgency. Patient teaching and discharge planning enable the clients to participate more effectively in their health maintenance process.