Starting a care improvement journey: focusing on the essentials of bedside nursing care in an Australian teaching hospital

Tracy Clarke, Michaela Kelleher and Greg Fairbrother

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2010, vol. 19, issue 13‐14, 1812-1820

Abstract: Aims and objectives. To evaluate and improve patient assessment practices, care practices, recognition of patient deterioration and communication in the acute ward environment. Background. A growing recognition of patient safety‐related concerns in acute hospitals, a nursing shortage and a reduction in availability of skill and experience levels at the bedside led a group of clinicians to explore the issues that impacted on patient care at a ward level within their organisation. Design. Multimethod practice development study. This paper reports phase one of concept development. Method. A practice review was conducted using clinical audit processes that examined practice and documentation in relation to patient assessment parameters and care planning, specifically identifying whether changes in clinical parameters were identified and acted on. Results. Results highlighted a clear discrepancy between the care that was identified on the nursing care plan and the care the patient was receiving. Actions as a result of the disappointing audit results included changes to education programmes, strategies to improve critical discussion regarding clinical practices and the development of assessable domains of nursing care that were relevant and realistic to ward‐based nurses. Conclusion. The results enabled the identification of eight domains of care and associated care outcomes that target strategies for care improvement. Emancipatory practice development methodology will be used to further progress this work and ensure successful implementation into clinical units. Relevance to clinical practice. This paper examines the critical discussions, audit processes and actions that took place, leading to the development of care outcomes for nurses.

Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2009.03173.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:19:y:2010:i:13-14:p:1812-1820

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().