Increasing RN Accountability in Professional Practice Development of a Pain Reassessment Documentation Scorecard

Leaders are challenged to find effective ways to increase ownership and accountability in the nurses' practice. Two hospitals, a 462-acute care bed facility (hospital A) and a 324-bed children's and women's hospital (hospital B), located on 1 campus in Southern California were the setting for a unique project targeted at monitoring adherence with pain management guidelines. The use of an auditing process through a computer-generated report and the development of an individual report card for each nurse provided specific performance data related to accountability and compliance in regard to documenting pain reassessment in the electronic medical record.