Patient satisfaction is among the goals that nursing practitioners strive to accomplish. However, despite the best efforts of nurses, this goal remains elusive. Various strategies have been developed to enhance patient satisfaction. Bedside shift reporting is among these strategies. This strategy is the focus of this paper. The purpose of the paper is to establish that compared to traditional reporting approaches, bedside reporting has a greater impact on patient satisfaction. A discussion of the low satisfaction levels that patients experience and their impact on nursing practice forms the first part of the paper. The paper then proceeds to identify the barriers that nurses should expect to encounter as they integrate bedside shift reporting into practice and how these barriers can be overcome.
Problem Description
Low levels of patient satisfaction are among the key problems that nurses face today as they endeavor to deliver care. Today, whether patients are satisfied is used as a measure of the effectiveness and quality of care that practitioners offer (Bible et al., 2018). Therefore, when the patient satisfaction scores are disappointingly low, they are taken as indication of poor quality of care. If nurses wish to safeguard their reputation as professionals who are dedicated to providing quality care, they need to take all necessary steps to boost patient satisfaction.
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PICOT Question
The picot question to be addressed reads as follows: “Among staff nurses on a medical-surgical unit, does implementing bedside shift report lead to the greater satisfaction of care according to patients when compared to traditional shift change reports at the nurse's station when assessed over three months?” This question captures all the elements of the PICOT framework. By answering this question, it is expected that bedside shift reporting will be established as an effective approach to enhancing patient satisfaction with the care that they receive.
Importance to Nursing
The importance of patient satisfaction to nursing cannot be overstated. Promoting quality improvement is among the important roles that patient satisfaction plays (Al-Abri & Al-Balushi, 2014). When they determine that patients are disappointed with the care provided, nursing practitioners can implement measures aimed at offering care of better quality. Therefore, nurses should regard low patient satisfaction as an opportunity to initiate quality improvement. Another function that satisfaction serves is that it boosts confidence in the work of nurses and other healthcare practitioners (Aiken et al., 2017). This means that when a patient expresses immense satisfaction, they are essentially saying that they trust the practitioner to attend to their needs. On the other hand, low satisfaction indicates that the patients would not trust the nurse to offer quality care. If they wish to gain the trust and confidence of their patients, nurses need to invest in improving satisfaction.
Impact on Outcomes
Nursing practice is not the only issue that is affected by low patient satisfaction. This problem also affects health outcomes. Research has established that high satisfaction levels are linked to such outcomes as safety, efficient use of resources and clinical effectiveness (Banka et al., 2015). Furthermore, patient satisfaction challenges practitioners to comply with relevant rules, policies and guidelines. Conversely, when patients report disappointment with the services offered, it can be expected that healthcare providers compromise safety and are unable to exploit resources prudently. Additionally, low satisfaction indicates lack of clinical effectiveness. Enabling patients to follow medication instructions and guidelines is another impact that satisfaction has on health outcomes. On the other hand, dissatisfied patients are unlikely to adhere faithfully to the instructions that their physicians or nurse issues. The various impacts of satisfaction on outcomes underscore the need for nurses to lead the effort to offer patient-centered care. As they do this, the nurses will be driving the medical fraternity in the direction of excellence and quality.
Chosen Intervention
It is true that there are a number of interventions that nurses can adopt as they seek to improve patient satisfaction. This fact raises the question of why bedside shift reporting was selected as the intervention of choice. The overwhelming evidence that has established the tremendous impact of bedside shift reporting serves as the primary rationale for the selection of these interventions. After conducting rigorous studies, various researchers have established that there is indeed a direct association between bedside shift reporting and high levels of patient satisfaction. For example, in their article, Gregory, Tan, Tilrico, Edwardson and Gamm (2014) identify the various benefits of bedside shift reporting. These benefits include improved patient engagement and reduction in medical errors, facilitating the delivery of safer care. Gregory and his colleagues add that bedside shift reporting also bolsters communication among nursing practitioners. Vines, Dupler, Son, and Guido (2014) confirm that bedside shift reporting contributes to the satisfaction of both patients and nurses. Bedside shift reporting was also selected because its benefits extend beyond boosting patient satisfaction with care. Other benefits include reducing the length of time that nurses are required to work and lowering the cost of care. One key issue that should be noted that while bedside shift reporting is an effective intervention in its own rights, it obtains further appeal from the fact that it is more effective than traditional reporting approaches. For example, Small and Fitzpatrick (2017) observed that nurses view bedside shift reporting more favorably than handing over a patient at the nurse station. This observation shows that bedside shift reporting could help medical units to address low patient satisfaction.
Barriers and Solutions
The implementation of any intervention is usually fraught with serious challenges. When they adopt bedside shift reporting, nurses should anticipate to encounter hurdles. In the following section, some of the common hurdles are identified and measures to address them proposed.
Barriers
Misalignment with the organization’s culture is among the hurdles that threaten the adoption of bedside shift reporting (Boryana, 2018). For example, if a facility does not value patient satisfaction, any efforts by a nurse to introduce the intervention is likely to fail. This problem represents the grave challenges that nurses have to address in their quest to ensure that all their patients find satisfaction in the care offered. It must be frustrating for a nurse to push for the adoption of the bedside shift reporting only to face strong opposition from colleagues and other stakeholders. Another challenge that could compromise the implementation of bedside shift reporting is the lack of the skills and competencies required (Boryana, 2018). For example, communication is among the skills that facilitates bedside shift reporting. The outgoing nurse needs to articulate such issues as the patient’s condition to the incoming nurse to ensure a smooth transfer. Without the required communication skills, the two nurses will be unable to achieve a seamless transition. Empathy and relationship building are other skills that nurses need to possess. When they lack these skills, the nurses will undoubtedly face hardships as they attempt to abandon traditional reporting and embrace bedside shift reporting.
Actions to Handle Barriers
Given the gravity of the challenges discussed above, nurses need to address them before proceeding with the implementation of bedside shift reporting. Among the solutions that have been shown to work include persuading various stakeholders to adopt the implementation process (Boryana, 2018). For instance, the nurse leading the campaign to adopt bedside shift reporting could speak with her colleagues about the benefits that this intervention presents. As the nurse engages her colleagues, she will be successful in securing support for the intervention.
Equipping practitioners with the competencies required is a solution to one of the main challenges that hamper the adoption of bedside shift reporting (Boryana, 2018). Hospitals should not leave it to individual nurses to facilitate the implementation processes. Leaders need to work closely with concerned stakeholders to conduct training through which nursing practitioners can acquire the skills and insights that they need.
Inclusion Criteria
The research to be conducted will involve a review of literature. A criterion has been developed to guide the selection of the literature to be included in the review. Year of publication and geographic area are the primary elements of the criterion. For inclusion, texts will need to have been published no earlier than 2013. This criterion will ensure that all texts are recent and relevant. The geographic area has been included because it will allow for focus to be given to settings that share similarities with the dynamics of the US healthcare system. Only articles that involved American participants or explores the US system will be included. The search may be extended to include other areas that are similar to the US.
Exclusion Criteria
An exclusion criterion has also been created to ensure that the literature review does not suffer contamination from texts that add little value. The main components of the exclusion criterion include non-peer review and the particular type of publication. Articles which have not been peer-reviewed will not be included in the review. These sources include websites and books published by organizations whose credibility can be questioned. By scrutinizing the publication type, it is hoped that credibility will be enhanced further. For example, editorials and opinion pieces will be excluded. Only articles that are the result of rigorous studies will be consulted.
Databases
There are a number of databases that hold information which could benefit the research process. However, only a few databases whose authority has been established will form part of the literature review. Google Scholar, ScienceOpen and Directory of Open Access Journals are the main databases from which literature will be sought. The research process will involve the use of various keywords. Some of the key words include bedside shift reporting, traditional reporting, patient satisfaction, and medical-surgical unit.
Patient satisfaction is one of the metrics used to assess the quality of care that nurses offer. Many nurses struggle to deliver services that leave their patients satisfied. Fortunately for these nurses, such interventions as bedside shift reporting are being presented as being the solution to low patient satisfaction. This intervention leads to enhanced efficiency and safety. Furthermore, bedside shift reporting has been linked to improved communication among nurses and higher levels of trust. Since bedside shift reporting delivers numerous benefits, nurses should be aggressive in campaigning for the adoption of this solution.
References
Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., Ball, J., Bruyneel, L., Rafferty, A. M., & Griffiths, P. (2017). Patient satisfaction with hospital care and nurses in England: an observational study. BMJ Open, 8 (1). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019189
Al-Abri, R., & Al-Balushi, A. (2014). Patient satisfaction survey as a tool towards quality improvement. Oman Medical Journal, 29 (1), 3-7.
Banka, G., Edgington, S., Kyulo, N., Padilla, T., Mosley, V., Afsarmanesh, N., Fonarow, G. C., & Ong, M. K. (2015). Improving patient satisfaction through physician education, feedback, and incentives. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 10 (8), 497-502.
Bible, J. E., Shau, D. N., Kay, H. F., Cheng, J. S., Aaronson, O. S., & Devin, C. J. (2018). Are low patient satisfaction scores always due to the provider?: Determinants of patient satisfaction scores during spine clinic visits. Spine, 43 (1), 58-64.
Boryana, D. (2018). The secrets to successful nurse bedside shift report implementation and sustainability. Nursing Management, 49 (6), 20-5.
Gregory, S., Tan, D., Tilrico, M., Edwardson, N., & Gamm, L. (2014). Bedside shift reports: what does the evidence say? Journal of Nursing Administration, 44 (10), 541-5.
Small, D. C., Fitzpatrick, J. J. (2017). Nurse perceptions of traditional and bedside shift report. Nursing Management, 48 (2), 44-9.
Vines, M. M., Dupler, A. E., Son, C. R. V., & Guido, G. W. (2014). Improving client and nurse satisfaction through the utilization of bedside report. Journal of Nurses in Professional Development, 30 (4), 166-173.
