Patient Satisfaction And Safety Goals Essay

The purpose of this article is to discuss appropriate nurse staffing and staffing ratios and its impact on patient care. Although the issue is just not about numbers as we discuss staffing we begin to see how complex the issue has become over the years. Many factors can affect appropriate nurse staffing ratios. As we investigate nurse staffing ratios we can see the importance of finding the right mix and number of nurses to provide quality care for patients.

Over time the health care industry has become more complex. Health care is rapidly evolving and continuing to complicate our delivery of care, which in turn has the same effect on quality of care. This steady evolution and change results in nursing shortages and an increase in the prevalence of errors being made. In hopes of preventing these errors and creating safe and high quality patient care, with the focus on new and improved ways of thinking, The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative was developed. The QSEN focuses on the following competencies: patient-centered care, quality improvement, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. Their initiatives work to prepare and develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary to make improvements in the quality and safety of health care systems (Qsen.org, 2014).

Prior to the hourly rounding implementation, all the clinical staff (staff involved in patient care) will attend an hour workshop, which will cover the advantages and significance of hourly rounding to patient safety, reduction of falls, increase patient satisfaction, improved health outcomes, and financial impact to the organization. A video on how to do the hourly rounding properly and what behavior to avoid will be shown. After the workshop, the staff will do return demonstration, playing the role of the staff, while being checked off to ensure that the expectations during hourly rounding are met. This includes how to properly introduce oneself to the patients, informing the patients that the staff will be rounding every hour till 2200 then every two hours till 0600, to address their pain, possession, position, and potty needs. By performing return demonstrations, the validators (nurse managers, educators) will be able to ascertain that the staff understood and will

The National Patient Safety Goals were first developed in 2002 by the Joint Commission. The goals are established to help guide medical organizations to focus on which areas of patient safety need improving (Hudson 2016). The first set of goals were released and put in motion in 2003, prior to 2003 there were no policies or goals for an organization to set their sights on (Hudson 2016 page 2). A panel of experts advises the Joint Commission on the development of new goals or the updating of old ones. The panel is called the Patient Safety Advisory Group and is made up of nurses, risk managers, clinical engineers, and physicians (Hudson 2016). The National Patient Safety Goals have specific goals geared toward the type of medical organizations such as a critical access hospital, home care, behavioral health, and long term care services to name a few (Hudson 2016 page 2). The National Patient Safety Goals help protect patients and make sure providers are practicing safely across the board.

Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency

The results of the study showed that significant increase in patient satisfaction scores, decreased call light usage, and reduction in patients fall rates. One-hour rounding shows higher satisfaction than two hour- rounding. Hypothesis supported the study because the research shows rounding can reduce patient call light usage (Meade, Bursell, Ketelsen , 2006). The theoretical framework that forms the basis of the research is that consistent nursing rounds can meet the basic needs of patient and ultimately reduce call light use and [pic]improve management of patient care while also[pic] increasing [pic]patient satisfaction and[pic] safety.

Hourly rounding, also known as “intentional” or “comfort” rounding is essentially when the nurse or tech routinely checks on a patient at scheduled times to anticipate individual needs prior to the activation of the call bell alarm (Harrington et al., 2012). In a recent study, authors imply that hourly rounding is an effective process for improving patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes (Brosey and March, 2015). I feel that the implementation of hourly rounding will improve multiple aspects of care, including patient and nurse

Patient safety and risk management should be intertwined in the organization. Patient safety is where the patient does not experience unnecessary harm or pain or other suffering during their treatment (Youngberg, 2011). Minimizing risk is to decrease unnecessary losses or improve or implement process that will decrease adverse event (Youngberg, 2011). The Samantha Jones adverse event is a perfect example to enhance patient safety through improved process or project. To understand the event a root analysis needs to be done and action items are created from this analysis.

Rounding allows nurses to gather information in a structured way. It’s proactive, not reactive like call light responses. It’s a great way to get a handle on patient problems before they occur. It’s all about providing the best patient-driven health care… The great thing about hourly rounding is that it doesn’t benefit only the patients. (¶ 4).

When a patient becomes hospitalized, it is important to ensure patient safety and satisfaction. A process known as hourly rounding has been implemented in many hospitals as a way to achieve this increase in patient satisfaction. The hourly rounding process consists of four concepts that are covered with each hourly round. When these concepts are implemented, the nurse will anticipate the needs of the patient and prevent unnecessary and untimely call lights. Hospital implementation of this process may receive some resistance but with the proper training and education this process can increase patient safety and patient

Hourly rounding is something that has been around for a while. One of the first things we learned in nursing school was that you should check on your patient every hour or every 2 hours (depending on nursing aid assistance). I started my research by looking at what hourly rounding entails. From there I found the majority of articles that think hourly rounding really does affect patient care and only a few opinion articles that think the opposite.

Hourly rounding also known as intentional rounding or comfort rounding is an initiative that hospitals nationwide are beginning to implement. Hourly rounding should be purposeful. “Hourly rounding is a systematic proactive nurse-driven evidence based intervention to anticipate and address needs in hospitalized patients” (Deitrick, Baker, Paxton, Flores, & Swavely, 2012, p.13). “Purposeful nurse rounds encompass a practice where nurses attend to and document scheduled patient reviews at pre-determined and regular intervals (hourly or second hourly)” (Lyons, Biunero, & Lamont, 2015, p.31).

Although nurses and nursing assistance are required to document hourly on activities of daily living (ADL), there has been inconsistency noted in the documentation, which makes one wonder if purposeful hourly rounding was being done accurately. Therefore, a project was implemented on the medical unit at Rex Healthcare, to re-introduce the hospital’s hourly rounding tool along with education on what was required in the hourly rounding charting of ADLs of patients. While auditing charts on the medical unit, it was found that nursing staff were over charting. Thus, nursing staff were spending more time away from the bedside. Nursing staff received updated education on what was required in their hourly documentation. They also received a tool that clearly stated what needed to be addressed in hourly rounding.

Hourly rounding contributes in several key areas to achievement of high levels of patient satisfaction, including quality of care and patient safety. This puts patients at the center of care by building on the fundamental aspects of care, which are so important. Thus by checking in on patients in wards regularly to see whether they are comfortable and have everything they need can produce a number of positive results. Nurses

“Nursing is an art, and if it is to be made an art, requires as exclusive a devotion, as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s work...” (Nightingale, 1868)