A Key to Success in Healthcare Education: Getting Stakeholder Commitment

Abstract

<p>A large teaching hospital in the Middle Atlantic United States has been working to improve outcomes related to falls, delirium, pressure ulcers and length of stay. One contributor to all of these concerns is a lack of mobility of patients. Nursing staff relied on physician orders and physical therapy to get patients moving. An Advanced Practice Nurse developed an evidence-based nurse driven protocol for nurses to take the initiative to get patients moving. A team of Nursing Professional Development (NPD) practitioners met to discuss the knowledge gap and the best way to close this gap. This group determined much more than the assessment tool and the protocol needed to be learned if the protocol was going to be successful. Nurses, Nursing Assistants and Patient Care Technicians in all in-patient, adult areas needed to be taught about the Nurse Driven Mobility Protocol, proper use of lift equipment and assistive devices for ambulation and how to properly and consistently document all patient activity in the electronic medical record. Additionally nurses needed to learn how to implement the bedside mobility assessment tool. It was determined that this needed to be a live education session that would take approximately one hour so as to incorporate cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains. The project leader was an NPD practitioner who worked with NPD colleagues, nursing leadership, unit managers and physical therapists, the stakeholders who had to commit the time and human resources required to accomplish this project. Over 1100 staff were taught over a fourteen week period. Ongoing reminders or &ldquo;boosters&rdquo; are being provided and monitoring of results has begun.</p>