Affiliations

Advocate Christ Medical Center

Presentation Notes

Quality Improvement poster presentation at Empowering Nursing Excellence: Recognizing the Value and Impact of Nurses, Advocate Health Midwest Region Nursing Research & Professional Development Conference 2023; November 15, 2023; virtual.

Abstract

Background: Getting a lot of admissions during shift change challenges and stresses nurses because they feel they cannot not give adequate care to patients.

Local Problem: Clinical nurses on a surgical unit at a large, urban, Level 1 trauma center, expressed concern about heavy workload during admissions. Heavy workload during admission affects the stress level of the staff which could negatively impact the quality of care provided to all the patients.

Method: To reduce the workload stress of the nurses, the unit implemented an admission nurse role. Prior to implementation, a unit RN surveyed the nurses about how an admissions nurse might change their experiences and work environment. The unit leaders developed the admission nurse role and transitioned a unit nurse into the role. Five months after starting the role, the unit nurses were re-surveyed to determine how well the role was helping with identified stressors and admission challenges.

Results: Adding an admissions nurse significantly improved (p < 0.05) nurses’ feelings of having help with admissions and reported admission workload decreased. They also reported feeling more support from the unit because they felt heard and that the unit leaders were trying to alleviate issues they raised. Nurses reported feeling more confident in delivering safe care and fewer nurse reported challenges completing tasks when they also had to admit a patient.

Implications for Practice: Limitations of the admission nurse role include: 1. Limited hours for the admission nurse role (not available on weekends), 2. reduced efficiency for non-admission nurses when they did need to do an admission because they were not familiar with all the admission tasks due to not doing it as often, and 3. possible burn out of the admissions nurses when they must handle back-to-back admissions.

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

11-15-2023


 

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Nov 15th, 12:00 AM

Adding an admission nurse to help alleviate staff's workload stress

Background: Getting a lot of admissions during shift change challenges and stresses nurses because they feel they cannot not give adequate care to patients.

Local Problem: Clinical nurses on a surgical unit at a large, urban, Level 1 trauma center, expressed concern about heavy workload during admissions. Heavy workload during admission affects the stress level of the staff which could negatively impact the quality of care provided to all the patients.

Method: To reduce the workload stress of the nurses, the unit implemented an admission nurse role. Prior to implementation, a unit RN surveyed the nurses about how an admissions nurse might change their experiences and work environment. The unit leaders developed the admission nurse role and transitioned a unit nurse into the role. Five months after starting the role, the unit nurses were re-surveyed to determine how well the role was helping with identified stressors and admission challenges.

Results: Adding an admissions nurse significantly improved (p < 0.05) nurses’ feelings of having help with admissions and reported admission workload decreased. They also reported feeling more support from the unit because they felt heard and that the unit leaders were trying to alleviate issues they raised. Nurses reported feeling more confident in delivering safe care and fewer nurse reported challenges completing tasks when they also had to admit a patient.

Implications for Practice: Limitations of the admission nurse role include: 1. Limited hours for the admission nurse role (not available on weekends), 2. reduced efficiency for non-admission nurses when they did need to do an admission because they were not familiar with all the admission tasks due to not doing it as often, and 3. possible burn out of the admissions nurses when they must handle back-to-back admissions.

 

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