Abstract:
This qualitative study aimed at describing the nursing service quality improvement process in the health promoting hospital. A case study method was conducted by studying in the first community hospital which has been accredited by the Institute of Hospital Quality Improvement & Accreditation and was certified from the Department of Health, Ministry of Public health. The participants were 30 key informants included hospital director, director of nursing, head nurses, staff nurses and personnel from other departments involved with nursing department. Data were collected by in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, non-participation observation and review of hospital documents. All data were analyzed by content analysis. The nursing quality improvement process in this hospital could be explained in 3 phases as follows: Phase 1: Initiating phase; this phase started from the policy of hospital: "no sickness", "no crowding" and "similar standard", however, the nursing service did not follow with the hospital policy. It was conducted by using the concept of the nursing standard from the Nursing Division, Ministry of Public Health. Phase 2: Implementing phase; by using the concept of quality improvement; this phase included 1) integrating the quality process of HA and the nursing standard 2) using the participative management 3) re-organizing the structure and focusing on promoting nursing service and 4) improving the nursing service by concepts of holistic care and patients focused. Phase 3: Improving the nursing service quality to the health promoting hospital; this phase include 1) re-organizing nursing organization along with the health promoting hospital policy 2) changing the nursing services by focusing on the holistic nursing, empowering patients and communities, and also callaborating with multidisciplinary teams 3) developing the knowledge of nursing personnel and 4) participating in re-organizing health according to health promoting hospital policy. The key successes of the nursing quality improvement process included 1) leaders 2) participation of staff 3) core value and nursing organization cultures 4) strong networking 5) commitment to proactive strategic and 6) emphasizing on quality improvement process strategies. This study indicated that the nursing service quality improvement process could be the lesson learn and the guidance for quality improvement, especially adjusting nursing proactive and health promoting roles.