The Evinca Review

Guide · Quality improvement

15 quality improvement project ideas for nurses (and how to measure them)

A good quality improvement project is small enough to start next week and measurable enough to prove it worked. Each idea below comes with a measure. Pick one that matches a real problem on your unit, agree it with your manager, and check whether your organisation needs a quality or ethics registration before you collect data.

Updated 28 September 2026 · 8 min read · The Evinca Review

Project ideas with a measure for each

  1. Structured shift handover (for example SBAR). Measure: share of handovers with all key elements documented.
  2. Early warning score escalation. Measure: share of raised scores escalated within the target time.
  3. Falls prevention bundle. Measure: falls per 1,000 bed-days.
  4. Pressure injury prevention. Measure: new pressure injuries per 1,000 bed-days; share of patients with a risk assessment within 6 hours.
  5. Medication administration interruptions (a "do not disturb" tabard or zone). Measure: interruptions per round; administration errors reported.
  6. Hand hygiene. Measure: compliance from direct observation audits.
  7. Catheter-associated urinary tract infection. Measure: catheter days; daily documented review of need.
  8. Pain reassessment after analgesia. Measure: share reassessed and documented within the target time.
  9. Discharge teaching with teach-back. Measure: 30-day readmissions for the target group; patient understanding scores.
  10. Sepsis screening in the emergency department. Measure: time from triage to screening and to first antibiotics.
  11. Delirium screening in older inpatients. Measure: share screened on admission and daily.
  12. Nutrition and hydration charting. Measure: share of charts complete at each shift change.
  13. Safe patient identification at blood sampling. Measure: labelling errors and rejected samples.
  14. New graduate nurse preceptorship. Measure: competency sign-off time; first-year retention.
  15. Noise at night. Measure: decibel readings on the ward; patient sleep-quality survey.

How to evidence your result (plan-do-study-act)

  1. Plan: define the problem, the measure and a baseline. Collect at least a few weeks of "before" data using a method you can repeat.
  2. Do: make one change at a time, on a small scale first.
  3. Study: plot your measure over time on a run chart. Look for sustained shifts, not a single good week.
  4. Act: adopt, adapt or abandon the change, then run the next cycle.

Keep a short project log: dates, what changed, who was involved and any other changes happening at the same time. That log becomes the core of an award dossier or a conference abstract later.

Turning a project into recognition

A finished project with a baseline, a measured change and an honest list of limits is exactly what the Evinca Patient Safety & Quality and Emerging Contributor categories review. Early-career nurses in Band C countries pay no fee.

Quick answers

What is a good quality improvement project for nursing students?

Something small and measurable within a placement, such as a hand hygiene audit, pain reassessment documentation or patient teach-back, agreed with your practice supervisor.

How do you measure a quality improvement project?

Pick one outcome or process measure, collect a baseline, make one change at a time and track the same measure on a run chart until you see a sustained shift.

See the Patient Safety & Quality category All guides