Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background and Aim: Nurses as the biggest group of caregivers provide patients with continuous caring services. The effect of these services on health care quality and also, patient's satisfaction is obvious. Regarding the key role nurse play in health care team, it is up to the manager to plan for improving nurse's knowledge and practical skills. Peer review process is seen as an approach of authority delegation by managers for nursing quality assurance. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of peer review process on quality of nurse's performance and patient satisfaction in cardiac care units in governmental hospitals located in the city Arak, Iran.

  Material and Method: This was a quasi-experimental study in which four cardiac units (CCU and PCCU) in two governmental hospitals in Arak city were selected as the study environment. The staff nurses of two units with higher number of nurses (n= 25) were selected as experimental group and the nurses of the other two units (n= 19) were selected as control group. The study tools were the quality of nurse's performance checklists and patient satisfaction questionnaire. Before intervention, checklists of quality of nurse performance were completed by co-researcher based on nursing care observations in every group. The patient satisfaction checklists (35 checklists) were completed by patients or by the interview. After the intervention (2 months duration) and supervision by the researcher without any intervention (1 months duration), the study tools were completed again for every group.

  Results: Both groups were similar in terms of their demographics (age, years of study, the level of living welfare, and…). Chi-square and paired t-test did not show any statistically significant difference between two groups, before and after the intervention. Also, there was not found any statistical significant relationship between nurse's demographic variables and their performance. There was a statistically significant relationship between patients’ satisfaction and their age and level of living welfare in control group before the intervention and the same was true for patients’ satisfaction and their level of living welfare in experimental group after the intervention. Mann-whitney U test showed a statistically significant difference for quality of nurse's performance between two groups after the intervention (P < 0.001). Also, there was a statistically significant difference in patient's satisfaction between two groups after the intervention (P < 0.001).

  Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the peer review process has effects on quality of nurse's performance and patient's satisfaction.