Relationship between nursing interventions and outcome achievement in acute care settings.

The extent to which nursing interventions provided during hospitalization are associated with patients' therapeutic self-care and functional health outcomes was explored with a voluntary sample of 574 patients. Nurses collected data on patient outcomes at admission and discharge using the minimum data set (MDS) and the therapeutic self-care scale (TSCS). Research assistants audited charts for documentation of nursing interventions. The results indicated that nursing interventions aimed at exercise promotion, positioning, and self-care assistance predicted functional status outcome. Higher functional status outcome predicted therapeutic self-care ability at hospital discharge. The results demonstrate that nurses can use MDS and TSCS data on patient outcomes to gain insight into the effectiveness of their interventions. Copyright 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.