Practicum Project
The nurse’s written report at the patient’s bedside is a composed record of the patient’s medical history. It describes the patient’s situation, the methods used in his treatment, and the care plan. This project aims to bring about changes in nursing practice that can provide safe, high-quality, and effective treatment of patients. Its goal is to develop a plan and practice guidelines for nursing bedside shift caregivers. It is planned to discuss the available literature regarding the topic of the project and create a graphic timeline depicting the vital stages of the project. Project objectives and resources will also be indicated, and a summary assessment of the project will be carried out. It is worth mentioning that improving the provision of nursing services is a real-world problem, the solution of which helps the whole society.
Goal statement
Patient-centered communication is a crucial factor in improving the prognosis of the disease. The goal of the intended project is to optimize scores in nurse-patient communication. It is intended to provide a situation in which the patient will feel able to participate in reflection and decision-making regarding further treatment. It is also necessary to ensure that there is a consensus on treatment between the nurse and the patient. These goals can be achieved by conducting training and workshops for nurses and introducing an EHR system, which would store data on a patient’s treatment. It is also essential to introduce leadership initiatives within the hospital staff. The focus areas are Minnesota’s clinics and patients needing intervention in nursing practice to improve their quality of care.
Project objectives
Process objectives define what the process must provide to meet its purpose and achieve its goals. Their measurability, in this case, will be expressed in finding specific solutions and indicators related to the essence of the paper. Project objectives include the following:
- Evaluating the factors that increase teamwork among staff members;
- Analyzing weaknesses in bedside nursing practice;
- Applying discovered effective strategies to specific healthcare practitioners.
Evidence-Based Review of the Literature
Proper communication with clients, no matter primary or permanent, is one of the most critical aspects of the work of any medical institution. The nurse’s orientation towards a partnership with the patient contributes to the improvement of the patient’s emotional state and the increase in adherence to treatment (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Patients who positively assess their relationship with the patient’s bedside nurse are more satisfied with the treatment (Molina-Mula & Gallo-Estrada, 2017). Taking into account the communicative needs of patients in the treatment process seems to be an essential component of the patient’s psychological adaptation.
Efficient interaction between nurses during shifts is essential to provide safe, quality, and effective care. All important information must be clear, accurate, and timely (Urquhart et al., 2018; Akhu-Zaheya et al., 2017). Ensuring an efficient patient transfer process from one healthcare worker to another is a tool for providing high-quality care (Dorvil, 2018). Communication gaps in patient displacement from one medical professional to another can be varied, including:
- Transmission of incomplete information necessary for high-quality treatment or examination at the next stage;
- Transmission of incorrect information;
- Incorrect perception of information.
Disruption of communication can occur at any stage of a patient’s movement within a medical organization and often leads to undesirable consequences. The performance of nursing staff will not be effective if there is no supervision and evaluation by the supervisor (Madede et al., 2017). Therefore, one of the most critical tasks of any medical institution is the timely recording, assessment, and correction of errors before they affect the achievement of the organization’s goals (Mathioudakis et al., 2016). To obtain effective results of such control, feedback is needed that will allow the executive to identify many unforeseen problems and avoid work disruptions (Hardavella et al., 2017). Since leadership is inherent in group activities, and nurses are united in a group structure, leadership and management are interdependent.
Nurses are constantly in direct contact with the patient, affecting the patient both positively and negatively. The task of such medical staff is to avoid unnecessary negative psychological influences as much as possible and to contribute to creating a psychological climate that favorably affects the healing process (Durosaiye, 2017). Since the importance of nurses as the medical personnel who most closely contact the patient is so high, one should not underestimate the significance of ensuring trouble-free communication between nurses and the patient. This policy is consistent with the general principles of health care in the United States.
Methodology
Team training of nurses in organizations where they carry out the practice that can improve communication in a short time. It will also be necessary to introduce an electronic patient records in hospitals, making it easier to store data over the course of a patient’s treatment. Moreover, standardizing the shift handover process can help improve the efficiency of nurse-to-nurse communication (Jain &Yadav, 2017). Maintaining an infrastructure that supports leadership development activities will avoid potential medical errors and enhance care safety (Sfantou et al., 2017). These activities can be implemented into the routine of hospitals and other healthcare organizations in approximately three months (Figure 1). Moreover, they must be carried out within the walls of the hospitals themselves, under the supervision of more experienced employees or outside experts.
Resources
The technical resources required for implementing this project should include the acquisition of EHR systems for those medical organizations where they are not available. If such systems are outdated, they will need to be modified to meet the needs of the clinic and staff. It will also require contracting or hiring experts (lecturers) to teach nurses the importance of effective communication. If it is impossible to conduct seminars and lectures within the hospital, you will need to rent offices for their conduct.
Formative evaluation
After the expiration of the implementation period, it is planned to assess whether the formulated goals have been achieved. This will require collecting feedback from participants who have completed a course on improving communication and interviewing patients for whom these nurses provide medical services. The time allotted for their collection should not exceed two weeks. Then, it will be necessary to correlate the feedback received with the goals set at the beginning. Suppose it becomes evident that there was a significant improvement in the participants in the estimated time. In that case, a report should be drawn up, and its positive results should be shared with colleagues from other states.
Summative evaluation
The summative evaluation should be carried out one year after the estimated completion date of the project. At the same time, in this case, the focus of attention should be directed to specific, measurable indicators of the project’s success. That is, how much more satisfied the patients have become, whether the number of medical errors has decreased and whether the communication among the medical staff has improved.
References
Akhu-Zaheya, L., al Maaitah, R., & Bani Hani, S. (2017). Quality of nursing documentation: Paper‐based health records versus electronic‐based health records. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27, 1-12.
Dorvil, B. (2018). The secrets to successful nurse bedside shift report implementation and sustainability. Nursing Management, 49(6), 20–25.
Durosaiye, I. (2017). A matrix for the qualitative evaluation of nursing tasks. Journal of Nursing Management, 26.
Hardavella, G., Aamli-Gaagnat, A., Saad, N., Rousalova, I., & Sreter, K. B. (2017). How to give and receive feedback effectively. Breathe, 13(4), 327–333.
Jain, S., & Yadav, J. (2017). A study on standardized system of shift handover communication compliance. International Journal of Advance Research and Innovative Ideas in Education. 3(4), 3370-3377.
Madede, T., Sidat, M., Mcauliffe, E., Patricio, S., Uduma, O., Galligan, M., Bradley, S., & Cambe, I. (2017). The impact of a supportive supervision intervention on health workers in Niassa, Mozambique: A cluster-controlled trial. Human Resources for Health, 15(1), 1-11.
Mathioudakis, A., Rousalova, I., Gagnat, A. A., Saad, N., & Hardavella, G. (2016). How to keep good clinical records. Breathe, 12(4), 369–373.
Molina-Mula, J., & Gallo-Estrada, J. (2020). Impact of nurse-patient relationship on quality of care and patient autonomy in decision-making. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3).
Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursing. Orthopedic Nursing, 36(1), 12–25.
Sfantou, D. F., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A. E., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Importance of leadership style towards quality of care measures in healthcare settings: A systematic review. Healthcare, 5(4).
Urquhart, C., Currell, R., Grant, M. J., & Hardiker, N. R. (2018). WITHDRAWN: Nursing record systems: Effects on nursing practice and healthcare outcomes. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 5(5).
Appendix
Table 1