Improving Interprofessional Communication Skills in Nurses Transitioning to Practice

Abstract

Purpose:The purpose of this Quality Improvement project is to provide guidance to improve interprofessional communication between nurses transitioning to practice and experienced health care providers. Methods: Participants include the director and manager of a nursing residency program (NRP) at a large hospital in Florida. A web-based presentation was developed to teach the participants how to use the proposed evidence-based toolkit. The toolkit includes a pre-test survey, educational flyer, PowerPoint, and post-test survey. The PI solicited feedback on the perceived usefulness of the toolkit, perceived barriers, likelihood for implementation, and implementation status through online surveys. Results: Findings included mixed results on the perceived usefulness and barriers to implementation. However, the proposed evidence-based communication toolkit was partially implemented into the NRP. Discussion: NRPs are encouraged to allow for interactive sessions on effective communication skills between colleagues. Provision of opportunities for the development of teamwork skills, critical thinking, and communication skills will increase job satisfaction and self-confidence, improve quality of patient care, and increase nurse retention rates. Conclusion: Job dissatisfaction, self-confidence, quality of care, and retention have been linked to the preparation of new graduate nurses for practice. Incorporating communication content into existing NRPs could potentially improve the communication skills between new graduate outcomes, and professional development (Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program, 2022). The program consists of a one-year residency with monthly educational seminars, simulation case studies, guidance from a baccalaureate-prepared preceptor, and an assigned academic partner who assists with his or her professional role (Camp & Chappy, 2017; Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program, 2022). The benefits of an EB program include the development of decisionmaking competency, confidence, professional satisfaction, critical thinking skills, and an individualized plan for the nurse transitioning into practice (Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program, 2022). Additionally, EB NRPs incorporate a defined theoretical basis into the curriculum. Adversely, the length of an organizational-based program ranges from 16 weeks to one year (Ackerson & Stiles, 2018). Organizational-based programs are also developed without a defined theoretical basis, leaving it up to the organization to determine the curriculum (Ackerson & Stiles, 2018).Health care providers and nurses are two of the most important parts of the health care team and communication between team members is of the utmost importance to maintain high quality care. Communication is a two way process that involves sending and receiving the correct message (Wang et al., 2018). Although there is evidence that illustrates the benefits of communication to improve patient outcomes, unfortunately, miscommunication continues to occur in health care (Perry, 2016). Upon analyzing numero...