Increasing the quality of nursing care by introducing the concept of primary nursing: a model project.

To ascertain the extent and degree of skill with which nurses have carried out processes judged to represent good nursing care, two alternate approaches were tested to organize the delivery of nursing care to children: Nurses on an experimental unit were trained to use primary care, that is, assignment of six to eight patients to one nurse who was responsible for the planning, implementation, evaluation, and coordination of the nursing care until the patient's discharge. On a control unit, nurses participated in delivery of group care, so that the care of each patient was assigned to various nurses. Performance of the nursing care was measured by the Slater Nursing Competencies scale, the Quality Patient Care scale, and the Phaneuf Nursing Audit. Mean scores on the three instruments were found to be higher on the experimental unit.