An Experiential Educational Intervention to Improve Nurse Managers' Knowledge and Self-Assessed Competence With Health Care Financial Management.

BACKGROUND: Nurse managers often list finance as the most challenging responsibility of their roles. This study examined the outcomes of an experiential, evidence-based educational intervention to increase nurse managers' knowledge and competence with the financial aspects of their roles. METHOD: The study design was a pretest-posttest comparative evaluation. Twenty-three nurse managers attended two 4-hour sessions covering general budget terms, productivity measures, variance analysis, and personnel budgeting. Pre- and posttests included 20 questions obtained from health care finance texts and preparatory materials from a nurse leader certification examination. Preand postassessments consisted of the finance portion of the Nurse Manager Leadership Partnership's Nurse Manager Skills Inventory. RESULTS: Scores improved significantly (p ≤ .05) for the posttest and the American Organization of Nurse Executives Nurse Manager Skills Inventory Finance self-evaluation questions (p ≤ .01). CONCLUSION: Experiential methods were successful in facilitating learning. Certification examination questions addressed relevant areas of financial knowledge necessary for nurse managers' role in the financial management of their units. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2020;51(4):181-188.].

Nurse-Leader Collaborative Improvement Project: Improving Patient Experience in the Emergency Department.

INTRODUCTION: Studies show that nurse rounding is an effective means to increase patient satisfaction and quality of care and decrease patient-safety events. There is evidence to support that daily leader rounding improves patients' hospital experience as well. Patients' experience increased confidence in their care providers, and leaders are able to address service concerns proactively. Furthermore, recent studies have addressed patient satisfaction in the ED setting as having an impact on patients' perceptions of the health care institution as a whole. Our objective was to demonstrate the effect of hourly nursing rounds and daily leader rounds on the ED patient experience. METHODS: We used a pre- and postintervention evaluation of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Services (HCAHPS) survey scores. Two groups of stakeholders developed standard work for rounding. The leader group and the bedside nursing care groups used the evidence cited in this article to create their standard processes. RESULTS: During the 2-month pilot period, patient experience scores-as measured by 5 survey questions-all improved. Results will continue to be tracked monthly and reported to all stakeholders in real time to help hardwire the process change. DISCUSSION: Through collaboration and a participative approach, nurses and leaders used the current evidence from scholarly nursing literature as well as Lewin's theory of change to guide a successful approach to rounding and improving patients' experiences when receiving emergency care.

Implementation and outcomes of a rapid response team.

Adverse events in hospitalized patients are preceded by clinical signs of decline. Thus, early recognition and intervention should improve patient outcomes. At the University of Kentucky Hospital, the impetus to start a rapid response team (RRT) was to decrease unplanned admissions to ICU, adverse events, and mortality overall. On the basis of the outcomes at our hospital, we conclude that there is benefit to having an RRT. The following article outlines processes for RRT implementation and our outcomes to date.