Discharge Education
Discharge planning is a process used by hospitals to help patient’s transition from the hospital setting back to their homes. Discharge planning involves educating the patient and this teaching should start at the time of admission and continue until the patient leaves the hospital. The purpose of discharge education is to improve patient outcomes and reduce readmissions which then reduces healthcare cost for the patient and the hospital. Even though the idea of discharge education sounds great, there are many flaws with the current process. Many hospitals have ineffective discharge teaching practices that can lead to readmission, morbidity, and mortality. Studies have found that between 19- 23% of patients experience post-discharge complications (Okoniewska, Santana, Groshaus, Stajkovic, Cowles, Chakrovorty, & Ghali, 2015). More than half of these complications have been linked to poor communication during the discharge teachings (Okoniewska, et al., 2015). The transition from the hospital to home is critical and if the patients do not understand how to care for themselves after discharge then it can be detrimental to their health. Post-discharge complications show that many patients are not understanding or receiving the proper education to take care of themselves at home (McBride & Andrews, 2013). These complications can lead to readmission.
Nurses’ have a responsibility to make sure that discharge education is provided to each patient, to make sure
Improving the quality of discharge planning in acute care include addressing the lack of appropriate staff and patient education about appropriate planning for discharge (4). This includes implementing proper discharge teaching regarding signs and symptoms to seek medical attention, management and care of medical equipment, and access to community resources (4, 5). Other challenges are patients with complex comorbidities too difficult to discharge as well as lack of community supports and equipment for newly discharge patients and lack of rehabilitation and nursing home beds (4). Consequently, acute care units are pressured to vacate hospital beds in response to the growing elderly population. Hospital professionals tend to focus discharge teaching and preparation on medical areas such as diet, activity, treatments, and medications (5). Community referrals to appropriate services at the time of hospital discharge does not often happen contributing to poorer patient outcomes and re-hospitalizations
Discharge planning is used to create a plan of care for a patient who is leaving a care setting. An evaluation is done to determine the patient’s continuing care needs once they have left the care facility. When patients are send back home or to a facility that does not require full time nursing care assistance, programs need to be put into place to ensure that the patient is receiving the proper continuation of care post discharge. Proper discharge planning can decrease the chances of a hospital readmit, help in recovery, ensure medications are prescribed and given correctly, and adequately prepare family or caregivers to assume proper post discharge care. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, “It is important, not only for patients, but family
It’s the nurse's duty to advocate for her patient and to make sure that the patient understands and ask questions if necessary.
This week’s reflection paper focuses practice-based evidence and the operation of the theoretical framework of person-in-environment as each relates to discharge planning at UMPC Mercy Detoxification Unit (UPMC-MDU).
Ineffective discharge teaching often leads to unnecessary admissions to the hospital resulting in negative patient outcomes and decreased patient satisfaction. This negatively impacts the well-being of the patient and creates a financial burden on institutions. As a result, this universal practice issue requires a call to action on the part of the nursing profession. Nurses can proactively assist in assuring incidents of readmission do not occur. Nurses as educators play a critical role in the successful transition of patients from hospital to home. The overall goal of discharge education is to ensure there is an exchange of critical information between the patient and nurse in which plans of care are understood and followed. The research
Standard 16 of the American Nurses Association (ANA) Scope and Standards Practice, directs nurse leaders to advocate not only for patients but for all members of our healthcare community. As a discharge planner, I am in a unique position to advocate not only for patients but for caregivers as well. As part of my responsibilities, I participate in daily multi-disciplinary team rounds. The meetings take place so that all disciplines can openly discuss patient care needs. They provide the perfect opportunity for anyone to bring to light problems or concerns.
The office would need to establish a goal to accommodate all post-discharge patients. When appointments cannot be made then an escalation process to the office manager needs to occur. In order to foster communication with professional partners, an investigation of the system failures. How can the transition to home be improved? The workflow should include a validation step that would entail hand-off communication between hospital rounders and office schedulers. If missteps occur, then the office staff could catch the near misses and call the patient at home. Care coordination among providers on an outpatient basis could be supported by the electronic medical record and having verbal care conferences. Next strategy could involve the hospital completing a call back within twenty-four hours to all patients discharged. This intervention could potentially catch some of the missed opportunities. Another approach involves face to face reinforcement of the patient-centered partnership with H. H. According to Counsil et al. (2012), “patient-centered care plans for complex patients changed the relationships with the health team” (p. 190). The development of this patient directed plan of care and partnership is
Discharge planning is a routine feature of health in many countries. The aim of discharge planning is to reduce hospital length of stay and unplanned readmissions to hospital, to improve the co-ordination of services following discharge from hospital thereby bridging the gap between the hospital and community (S. Shapperd, 2008). The focus of this story is discharge planning that occurs while
| In the nursing education the student should be helped to appreciate that not all patients are going to leave the hospital disease free, and that as nurses there is a need to learn that we need to help them in any way we can to achieve their maximum amount
Integrating an Advanced Practice Nurse into the discharge process to help guide proper understanding of discharge instructions to help decrease non-compliance, along with re-admission rates. The best types of research evidence will include clinical practice guidelines (CPG), Random Controlled Trials (RCT), Primary Research Studies. I included other types of studies but come up with small results. I used different variables when searching the literature. Some of these included, literacy level, different types of a disease process, use of pictograms, re-admission percentages, along with non-compliance.
It is essential for nurses to understand which appropriate method and tools should be utilized for an individual and their families when performing discharge teaching in order for the patient education to be successful which in turn will promote proper healthy healing (Bastable, 2014). The purpose of this discussion board is to develop two objectives from my teaching plan and describe the instructional methods that will help Tina with meeting these objectives, identify which evaluation method I will utilize to help determine if the objectives were met and explain why I chose this particular evaluation method for Tina. And further discuss any potential barriers that might be expected and discuss how I plan to address these potential barriers.
Hospital discharge has been defined as “a systemic problem that can be characterized as a dangerous situation in which latent conditions exist such that sharp end individuals are set up to fail” (Anthony et al., 2005). Understanding this process is flawed warrants an investigation for a change in practice. Research has explored a variety of interventions that address reducing 30-day readmissions such as post-discharge phone calls, RED toolkit, BOOST toolkit, transition coaches, and home visits after discharge. Despite these tools, 30-day readmission rates among the older adult population continue to be a challenging issue.
Discharge planning and management with an elderly person can become very complicated and should be approached with an open mind and the willingness
Using the seven key principles of the hospital discharge process devised by the Department of Health (DH, 2003), this case study will critically analyse the process of an elderly patient who was discharged from a local acute trust. It begins by providing a definition of discharge planning, before providing a brief biography of the patient, including a rationale of why this patient was selected, details of her past medical history, reason for current admission, any issues raised and details of any care provided. Throughout this case study, in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2008) and the Data Protection Act (1998), the patient shall be referred to as Mrs. Blue to maintain anonymity. Although the
Discharge Planning – Patients who require continuing care after release from the hospital are identified and the appropriate services are arranged through participating home care, medical equipment and other providers.