Using the Electronic Health Record in Nursing Research: Challenges and Opportunities.

Changes in the patient record from the paper to the electronic health record format present challenges and opportunities for the nurse researcher. Current use of data from the electronic health record is in a state of flux. Novel data analytic techniques and massive data sets provide new opportunities for nursing science.

Measuring quality improvement in public health: the development and psychometric testing of a QI Maturity Tool.

There is growing interest and investment in improving the quality of public health services and outcomes. Following the lead of other sectors, efforts are underway to introduce systematic quality improvement (QI) tools and approaches to state and local public health agencies. Little is known, however, about how to describe and reliably measure the level of QI maturity within a public health agency.

Assessing quality improvement in local health departments: results from the Multi-State Learning Collaborative.

Objective: This study examined changes in quality improvement: (1) over a 3-year period, (2) among mini-collaborative participants, and (3) among agencies that were classified in the lowest QI performance quartile.

Methods: : A QI Maturity Tool was administered to all local health departments in the Multi-State Learning Collaborative states. Factorial ANOVA was performed to determine differences in composite factor scores and interaction effects were explored.

Evaluating the Multi-State Learning Collaborative.

The third phase of the Multi-State Learning Collaborative (MLC) is a 3-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative designed to build quality improvement capacity within state and local health departments. This commentary provides a brief overview of the MLC, a methodological description of its evaluation, and preliminary findings. Major evaluation data sources include quarterly reports, surveys, case studies, and key informant interviews.