Improving the patient experience through nurse leader rounds

Abstract

Improving the patient experience through nurse leader rounds Cover Page Footnote We would first like to acknowledge the incredible work and leadership of the teams and leaders of the regions, hospitals and emergency departments who implemented nurse leader rounds and achieved such positive results. Without their dedication and effort, this article could not have been written. We would also like to express our appreciation to the board and executive leaders whose oversight and guidance maintains patient experience and the work related to it as a high priority. We are particularly thankful to librarians Kathryn Gibbs and Basia Delawska-Elliott for their assistance in securing literature needed to inform this research. Advice provided by Tom French regarding statistical analyses was most valuable, and we are extremely grateful to have benefited from it. Michele Bedford deserves our eternal gratitude for her constant assistance to coordinate, support, and improve our efforts. Special thanks are extended to Michele Nafziger and Press Ganey for generous and ongoing support of our data analysis, reporting, and improvement work. This article is associated with the Culture & Leadership lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework.

Impact of Structured Nurse Leader Rounds on Satisfaction With Nursing Care Among Patients With Cancer

“…The results indicate that structured NLRs were associated with raising the overall patient satisfaction level in experimental groups at different wards. This finding is consistent with many studies that discussed the impact of NLRs and post‐discharge calls on patient satisfaction implemented in nononcology settings (Bender et al, ; Brosey & March, ; Morton et al, ; Ogbolu et al, ).…”

“…Posttest designs help explain and determine the impacts of the interventions (Sekaran & Bougie, ). This design was used to address some limitations of previous studies that used descriptive pretest and posttest designs; the pretest was conducted in one group before the implementation of the NLR, and the posttest was conducted in another group after the implementation of the NLR without using a control group (Babaev, ; Bender et al, ; Morton et al, ; Reimer & Herbener, ; Tan & Lang, ).…”

“…Effective monitoring and regular support of the nurses' practices are considered a core function of nurse managers to improve patient satisfaction (Morton, Brekhus, Reynolds, & Dykes, ). Clinical rounds are the most common monitoring and supporting method applied by nursing leaders to ensure the effectiveness of nursing care (Bender, , ; Bender, Connelly, & Brown, ; Ogbolu, Scrandis, Fitzpatrick, & Newhouse, ).…”

“…Other studies have examined the impact of a structured NLR on patient satisfaction with nursing care, and they aimed to evaluate the impact of the structured NLR on enhanced patient satisfaction (Babaev, ; Bender et al, ; Morton et al, ; Reimer & Herbener, ) or improved clinical quality indicators such as falls, pressure ulcers, and catheter‐associated urinary tract infections (Reimer & Herbener, ). These studies considered an NLR to be an intervention, which included a structured round using a prepared tool that consisted of questions regarding nursing care, such as nurse responsiveness, care plan, and patient education as managed by the nurse leader during the round (Babaev, ; Bender et al, ; Morton et al, ; Reimer & Herbener, ).…”

“…Structured NLRs in previous studies have been implemented in small inpatient settings such as post‐surgical units (Babaev, ) and progressive care units (Bender, Connelly, Glaser, & Brown, ), or in a large healthcare system (Morton et al, ). These studies showed that NLRs have different impacts on patient satisfaction with nursing care, a conclusion reached after a systematic review conducted by Tan and Lang (), who showed that there was weak evidence in proposing that structured NLRs were effective in enhancing patient satisfaction.…”