Plan for Implementing Hourly Nursing Rounds Essay

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Hourly nursing rounding is regarded as one of the most suitable means for enhancing patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. This process can be described as a proactive, systematic nurse-centered evidence-based intervention to predict and deal with the various needs in hospitalized patients. There is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that effective hourly nursing rounding can enhance patient safety, promote team communication, and enhance the capability of staff to offer efficient patient care. Therefore, this approach would be a suitable method to help reduce falls, prevent ulcers, and call light use and result in enhanced patient satisfaction through evidence-based practices. The adoption of this method in the organization to improve patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes would require the development of a comprehensive implementation plan and participation from all key stakeholders.

Method of Obtaining Necessary Approval

The adoption of hourly nursing rounding in the healthcare facility to enhance patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes would require obtaining necessary approval and support from the organization's leadership and fellow staff. The process of obtaining necessary approval and support is dependent on the evidence in the organization with regards to the need for a new approach to enhance patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. In light of the existing circumstances in the organization, the evidence is strong while the environment is increasingly accessible to change. Therefore, the facilitation of this change process would be relatively less rigorously and less demanding (Brosey & March, 2014, p.2).

The method utilized for obtaining necessary approvals and support from the organization's leadership was holding discussions with the leadership team about the current best practices and positive impacts of hourly nursing rounding. These discussions were held during an institutional review board meeting that examined the current practices in the organization's environment. The institutional review board meeting also focused on identifying an appropriate framework that would contribute to enhance patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes through evidence-based practices. In essence, the main agenda of the institutional review board meeting was examining context or environment, evidence, and facilitation or determination of a suitable framework. Following the discussions, the organization's leadership provided necessary approval for this evidence-based practice project. With regards to obtaining necessary approval and support from fellow staff, the facilitation method entailed the use of a framework through which staff were enabled and empowered to take control of their learning and change process (Brosey & March, 2014, p.2). Discussions were also held with fellow staff about the current best practices and positive impact of this change process. These discussions were crucial in encouraging and empowering staff to become active in decision making and embracing the implementation plan of the proposed project.

Description of Current Problem

Nurse generally conduct their roles in provide patient care through communication, which is a crucial element nurse-patient interactions. Actually, communication is regarded as the cornerstone or foundation of the nursing profession since it is crucial to the quality of nursing care. Regardless of the significance of communication in the nursing profession and practice, there have been several incidents of unfavorable communication levels between nurses and patients in this healthcare facility. The unfavorable levels of communication in nurse-patient interactions has in turn contributed to reduced patient satisfaction and negatively impacted the likelihood of achieving desired clinical outcomes.

One of the major reasons for this problem in this healthcare organization is the lack of effective framework or process for nursing rounds. The delivery of patient care involves conducting regular checks on individual patients rather than waiting for them to ring a bell when in need of care. In this healthcare organization, nurses do not carry out regular checks on patients in order to predict and provide essential care. In most cases, nurses in this healthcare organization tend to wait for patients to ring a call bell in order to anticipate and provide essential care based on the patient's needs. Due to the lack of an effective framework for nursing rounds has contributed to patient falls, ulcers, and increased call light use.

Patients have continued to complain about the ineffectiveness of nurses in delivery of effective patient care. Most of the organization's patients state their dissatisfaction with the care delivery process and clinical outcomes. Therefore, the main problem for this organization is the increased risks of falls, ulcers, and call light use which affect patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. This problem is largely brought by the lack of a suitable framework for effective nursing rounds in order to anticipate and provide essential patient care rather than adopting a reactive approach where they only respond to a patient ringing a call bell (Forde, 2014, p.38).

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Explanation of Proposed Solution

The proposed solution to address this problem is establishing a framework for hourly nursing rounding, which will help nurses adopt a proactive rather than reactive approach in anticipating and providing essential nursing care to patients. Hourly nursing rounding can be described as a systematic, proactive nursing intervention which is develop to effectively predict and handle the needs of hospitalized patients (Brosey & March, 2014, p.1). Actually, this procedure is regarded as an effective means to enhance patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. The suitability of this method is attributed to the fact that there is adequate evidence demonstrating the positive effects of hourly nursing rounding on improved patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. In most cases, this procedure has been adopted as a standard component in nursing practice with regards to lessening patient harm and enhancing patient satisfaction. Hourly nursing rounding is an evidence-based nursing practice given that numerous studies have indicated that when done correctly, it promotes and enhances satisfaction, quality, and safety (Timothy, 2015).

Hourly nursing rounding, which is commonly known as intentional or purposeful rounding, entails conducting regular checks on individual patients as a means for anticipating and providing essential nursing care based on the patient's needs (Forde, 2014, p.38). In this case, nurses adopt a proactive approach instead of reactive approach in which they simply respond to a patient ringing a call bell in order to anticipate and provide fundamental care. In this process, patients are visited by a nurse at least every hour or two to examine their health and overall well-being. During these visits, nurses also evaluate patients' comforts and pain, carry out necessary changes in position and toileting, and ensure easy access to the patient's individual fluids and other necessary items.

Hourly nursing rounding is based on the structured approach of purposeful or intentional rounding and is commonly linked to the concept of back rounds, which was an important part in the delivery of patient care between 1970s and 1980s. Given its foundation on this concept, this procedure is task centered and increasingly focuses on enhancing patient comfort and preventing any kind of patient harm such as falls, ulcers, and call light use. The procedure helps prevent falls since nurses reposition patients and place them in ways that prevent any risks of falls. Repositioning of patients not only helps in preventing falls but also ensures that they are comfortable throughout the process of care delivery. Through hourly nursing rounding, patients are repositioned frequently, are comfortable, clean, pain free, hydrated, and regularly toileted.

With regards to prevention of ulcers, hourly nursing rounding ensures nurses reposition patients to promote patient comfort. This process acts as a means for evaluating and weighing a patient's risk of pressure ulcers. The evaluation acts as a major tool for informing a care plan based on the patient's specific needs. Through this process, nurses effectively lessen the risk of pressure ulcers by providing patient comfort. In relation to call light use, hourly nursing rounding lessens the use of ringing a call bell since nurses become more proactive by carrying out regular checks on patients instead of responding to them.

Rationale for Selecting Proposed Solution

The rationale for selecting hourly nursing rounding as a solution to the existing problem in the organization is the effectiveness of this approach in addressing the hospital's major problems and contributing to improved patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. The suitability of this procedure in enhancing patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes in this hospital setting is attributed to the fact that it contributes to improved team communication. There is overwhelming evidence to demonstrate that this procedure is safe, efficient, and useful in today's nursing practice (Brosey & March, 2014, p.6). In addition, the proposed solution is a cost-effective nursing intervention since it helps lessens injuries associated with patient falls and formation of ulcers as well as reducing hospital stays, which promotes cost avoidance. Hourly nursing rounding is suitable since it enhances nurse-patient interactions and enables nurses to respond to patients' health needs and concerns while modifying unsatisfying conditions (Negarandeh, Bahabadi & Mamaghani, 2014, p.283).

Evidence from Literature Review and Reason for Change

As demonstrated in the literature review, there is overwhelming evidence to demonstrate that hourly nursing rounding is effective in enhancing patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. This is mainly because the proposed solution helps in lessening falls, preventing ulcers, and call light use, which are associated with increased costs and negatively affect the….....

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