Performance Management for Public Health Nursing

Background: Implementation of healthcare reform has resulted in a sweeping movement to improve the quality and value public health programs. Leaders from all public health sectors are now facing increasing calls for demonstration of impact on health outcomes.  As directors of one of the largest professional groups in public health, public health nursing (PHN) leaders share the onus of facilitating this shift of focus from service delivery to accountability for outcomes. Use of Performance Management systems (PM) has been proposed as an effective means of providing the structure and processes necessary to measure and improve impact on key population-health outcomes; literature on the topic of PHN-specific PM systems is scant. In its endeavor to capture PHN impact on population-health, one federal public health organization analyzed conditions necessary for developing and implementing a PM system for PHNs.

Description: This presentation will describe best practices for development and implementation of PM systems and the use these systems to facilitate public health program quality improvement efforts.  Actions taken by this organization to determine organizational readiness for PHN-specific PM system development and implementation will also be discussed in detail.

Lessons Learned: While particular organizational and leadership conditions are for critical PM system adoption, stakeholder participation in development and implementation activities is critical to PM system effectiveness. Additionally, role clarification and alignment of PHN performance measures with strategic goals are essential.

Implications: Implementation of effective PM systems can improve performance measurement capacity. A PHN-specific system could facilitate efforts to capture the impact of PHN services.