Using research to identify why nurses do not meet established sexuality nursing care standards.

ALTHOUGH A main objective of quality assurance (QA) activities is to improve the nursing care given to patients. many QA activities focus on uncovering deficiencies rather than on developing strategies to assist nurses in meeting quality patient care standards. Intervention strategies may be quickly and poorly planned and often result in no improvement or only a temporary rise in monitoring scores. This article will examine a recurrent nursing QA problem experienced at the University of Kentucky Hospital and the research activities taken to discover the underlying reasons for failure to meet the department's care standards in the area of sexuality. The results of this research then served as the basis for developing a comprehensive intervention plan to change the practice of nurses within the institution.