Nursing Communication and Patient Care

Nursing Communication and Patient Care

This paper addresses the problem of little patient satisfaction in acute care hospitals with not more than thirty beds.The potential solution to the problem is to improve the nursing levels of communication.The nursing focused plan will involve the Patient Care Assistants, the Unit Secretaries and the Registered Nurses in the hospital’s acute care section. The proposed intervention is communication education for the Patient Care Assistants, the Unit Secretaries, and the Registered Nurses. Use of different media will achieve the education of these health workers. Examples of media to be used include the videos such as Heart-Head-Heart produced by Lee, 2011, and the 4ps as presented by Woodward in 2009. The research will test the communication tool and the hourly rounding of nurses and will finally compare the consumer assessment of the overall healthcare system. The desired outcome of the intervention is an increased consumer satisfaction and improved patient satisfaction in the entire healthcare system.

Change Model Overview

The change model of choice is the John Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Process. In this models, the three-step process of practice question, evidence and translation are used to guide clinical decision-making. In the first phase of practice question formulation, an appropriate answerable question is identified as the foundation of the change model. The second phase, evidence, considers all research and non-research information available and synthesizes it in the context of the research question. The final phase, translation, involves assessment of the feasibility of the change plan and its consequent implementation in pilot studies.

The goal of the integrated process is to have the latest research being seamlessly integrated into clinical practice. Therefore, the model is pegged on three cornerstones – practice, education, and research.Instituting change on this model requires that both internal and external factors are taken into account. The advantage of using the evidence-based model is that the clinical practice is kept up to date and recent research findings can be used to improve the quality of healthcare. The model gives clinical practice an element of flexibility and adaptability, and the solutions that are born of it are customized to the particular healthcare setting, which guarantees their success.

Practice Question

Step 1: Recruit Interprofessional Team

An interprofessional team will handle the execution of the plan since patient care is a collaboration of many professions. Th……………