By appearing in one of the nation’s leading physician journals, the Viewpoint article<\/a> brings the conversation to doctors, health system leaders and policymakers whose decisions help shape how quality of care is measured and evaluated. In addition to her leadership role, Kennedy is also an associate professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cNurses provide the majority of direct patient care in hospitals, and decades of research link the quality of nursing care to length of stay, mortality and readmissions. Yet the measures that drive payment, accreditation and public accountability capture only a narrow slice of what nurses do,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n For example, nurses often spot an early warning sign in a patient\u2019s condition, or help a family understand their treatment options, or advocate for a patient, or bring together members of a care team \u2014 and that work can make a real difference. Yet, Kennedy noted, many of those contributions have been difficult to measure.<\/p>\n Kennedy as lead author and two co-authors report that their framework could help researchers and health systems better recognize aspects of nursing care that traditional quality measures often overlook.<\/p>\n The domains were first outlined in the 2024 \u201cCall to action: Blueprint for change in acute and critical care nursing\u201d<\/a> published in Nursing Outlook<\/a> by a national group of nursing science leaders. Kennedy is a member of that group, which is working to define, validate and measure the impact of nursing care.<\/p>\n Defining the full scope of nursing practice<\/p>\n The article states how nursing quality measures mainly focus on harm metrics, such as infections, falls and pressure injuries. These outcomes matter, but they measure nursing by the harm that occurs when high-quality nursing care is missing. Core aspects of care that nurses have long prioritized, such as symptom management, end-of-life care and clinical surveillance, have no dedicated measures.<\/p>\n The domains identified in the framework span the full range of nursing practice across patient populations and care settings. For each domain, the authors identify candidate outcome measures. Some build on existing tools, others would need to be developed and tested before adoption.<\/p>\n Helping researchers better understand nursing care\u00a0 Researchers have long known that nursing care plays a key role in patient safety and recovery. Kennedy said the work aligns with efforts at UC Davis Health to better understand and highlight nurses’ contributions in this area. She and her fellow authors, Laura Beth Kalvas<\/a> of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and\u00a0Martha A.Q. Curley<\/a> of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, encourage collaboration among nurses, physicians, healthcare leaders, credentialing bodies and policymakers to advance approaches that recognize the full value of nursing care.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not about elevating one profession over another,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cEvery member of the healthcare team contributes to patient outcomes. Measurement drives attention. Our goal is to better understand and measure the unique contributions nursing brings to that work.\u201d<\/p>\n For patients and families, Kennedy says the message is simple: Nurses play a vital role in care and recovery. Better understanding that impact can help improve care for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(SACRAMENTO) Some of the most meaningful contributions nurses make are also among the hardest to measure. Now, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-503189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lori](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/nursing-domains-quote.jpg\")
Every member of the healthcare team contributes to patient outcomes. Measurement drives attention. Our goal is to better understand and measure the unique contributions nursing brings to that work.\u2014Lori S. Kennedy, director of the Center for Nursing Science<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/nursing-domains-widebody.jpg\")
\nLori Kennedy, second from left, says current quality measures focus on patient harm outcomes but should consider the full range of nursing impact.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/nursing-domains-body2.jpg\")
\nThe nine domains of nursing care reflect the essential roles nurses play in delivering compassionate, coordinated and patient-centered care across settings.<\/p>\n