1.0 Title
The working title of this research is drafted as – Improving the Patient Care: Implications of Hourly Nurse Rounding
2.0 Background of the Study
Hourly sounding was perceived to be a powerful tool to improve nursing and patient care excellence as it can advance nursing staff behaviors in reducing call lights and allowing nurses to respond more efficiently to patient requests as well as improving clinical outcomes, decreasing risks though lessened patient falls and hospital-acquired decubitu and increasing patient and employee satisfaction. Hourly rounding could drive the individualized patient care and bedside shift reporting. As such, hourly nurse rounding could lead to effective 3Ps – pain, positioning and potty – assessment.
According to John Leighty, nurses who are involved in hourly rounding protocol found their shifts less stressful and their time more productive in addition to all-time high scores for patient safety and satisfaction. The implementation of the hourly rounding protocol became a routine whereby nurses followed a script and updates on white boards for every room for the purpose of keeping the patients informed about their care, therefore enveloping a proactive environment for both patients and nurses.
The topic is chosen to prove or disprove that nurse’s time management improves when patients feel they are attended more closely through hourly rounding. As a strategy, hourly rounding may require more time than usual especially for hospitals that are currently experiencing nurse shortage albeit its credibility to ensure the consistency and continuity of patient care. Though it can also lead to best outcomes and satisfaction measures, hourly rounding may produce different results considering the magnitude and seriousness of the patients’ demands.
3.0 Research Aim and Questions
The general aim of the research is to analyze and evaluate the efficacy of hourly nurse rounding and how it impacts the time management of nurses. To accomplish this general purpose, the research will seek to answer the following specific questions:
1) How these nurses perceived their role in the one-hour rounding strategy? For the hospitals, what are their functions and responsibilities in making the nurses committed to the strategy?
2) What are the individual and organizational benefits and drawbacks of the hourly rounding strategy? How hourly rounding is fit into busy schedules for nurses?
3) Does the hourly rounding undervalue nurses’ time and use of the time? In what way?
4) How the strategy helped nurses in balancing their professional and personal lives?
4.0 Research Plan
Research Perspective
The research philosophy adopted for the research is interpretivism as the research is basically exploratory. I will be exploring how the hourly rounding impact the work-life balance for the nurses and how it could likely affect the value of and utilization of their time. Thereby, using an inductive approach to form a theory as to what extent does the hourly rounding shape the time management of nurses.
Research Design
The research will operate within the cross-sectional design as I will be collecting data on more than one case, using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, structured observation and document analysis for the purpose of being able to focus on the breadth and depth of the research. Through the process also, I would be able to increase the validity and the truthfulness of the research while minimizing the threats to reliability. Since the strategy is exploratory, a range of qualitative and quantitative data will be collected and researched upon.
Data Collection
Primary and secondary data will be collected. For the research, semi-structured interviews will be conducted. Five hospitals implementing the hourly rounding strategy will be interviewed. These hospitals must be operating for a minimum of 10 years with hourly rounding strategy in place for more than a year. It is only feasible to explore five hospitals due to time constraints. Nurses will be surveyed using questionnaires designed and pre-tested by the researcher. As planned, 500 questionnaires will be disseminated with the hope of 150 to be returned.
The secondary sources will be the selection of nursing management books, the Internet websites, hospital reports, science journal articles and newspapers and magazine articles.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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