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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 14, 2003 CONTACT:
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ANA Introduces Principles for Documentation Brochure for Nurses
Washington, DC --The American Nurses Association (ANA) has introduced a new tool to streamline the nursing documentation process. Available in a brochure format titled Principles for Documentation, this new guide includes policy statements, principles and recommendations to assist nurses with documentation and to comply with institutional and regulatory requirements.
"The need for documentation is extremely important, but the demand for it has increased dramatically in recent years to the point where many nurses report that time spent completing 'nursing documentation' comes at the expense of providing safe, quality patient care," said ANA President Barbara Blakeney, MS, APRN,BC, ANP. "That's why the Principles for Documentation were developed - to make this essential but increasingly time-consuming process more manageable for nurses and to assist them in addressing associated workplace issues."
The Nurse Reinvestment Act was signed into law in August 2002. It authorizes scholarships and loan repayments for nursing students who agree to work in shortage areas after they graduate. The new law also authorizes public service announcements to promote nursing as a career, loan cancellations for nursing faculty, grants for geriatric nurse education, and grants to encourage nursing best-practices, such as those in the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognition Program for excellence in nursing services.
The policy statements and principles outlined in the guide are based on the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses With Interpretive Statements (ANA, 2001b) and Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice, 2nd Edition (ANA, 1998). In addition, the formulated principles, in many instances, are based on standards set forth by state and federal regulatory agencies, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and through accrediting organizations such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
"Professional nurses as a group are especially conscientious about documenting patient care activities," Blakeney noted. "But the burden of documentation and accountability for care delivery has increased so dramatically that many nurses worry that it has compromised quality patient care - something that documentation, ironically, is intended to ensure. This law of 'unintended consequences' has provoked many requests to analyze and revise the documentation process to address nurses' mounting concerns. Hence the critical need for more knowledge and guidance in this area - a need that this ANA brochure helps meet."
Principles for Documentation is a companion to ANA's Principles of Nurse Staffing brochure. Single copies of the Principles for Documentation (item PD-1) are available free to constituent nurses association members only by calling 1-800-274-4ANA. For information on ordering multiple copies of the brochure or other ANA publications, please call 1-800-637-0323.
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ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its 54 constituent associations. ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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