Hourly Rounding
Improvement to Patient Care by Hourly Rounding
A change that a nurse manager could implement that would help improve patient care is hourly rounding. In order to implement this change successfully, the nurse manager needs to clearly communicate the expectations, and then follow up with good monitoring. When the nurse manager sees the staff meeting the expectations the staff should be acknowledged rewarded/recognized and celebrated. On the other side, if the staff is not meeting the expectations they should be reminded, coached, and counseled. Sticking to the communicated expectations can have powerful results when the nurse manager diligently and consistently puts the plan into practice.
Justification to Improve Patient Care and Perspective Theories to Support the Change
As a manager an area of change that could improve patient care is hourly rounding. Hourly rounding involves rounding on patients every one to two hours and practicing a series of 8 specific behaviors. There are seven recognized reasons patients use their call bells. These seven reasons include bathroom/bedpan assistance (15%), IV/Pump alarm (15%), pain medication (10%), needed a nurse or CNA (9%), position assistance (4%), accidental hits of the call light (13%), miscellaneous reasons (13%). Studies show by using the hourly rounding on patients the percent can decrease by - bathroom 40%, pain 35%, positioning 29%, Iv/pump alarms 40%, and miscellaneous 39% (Studer Group, 2010).
Hourly rounding is more than just “checking in” every hour. Once this practice becomes part of the nurse’s workflow, the organization will begin to see decreases in lost charges, incidental overtime, med errors, and an increase in nursing and patient satisfaction.
Strategies and Internal and External Need for this Change:
The first step to implementing this change is to gather baseline data on falls, hospital acquired decubiti and call light statistics. Falls and decubiti information may be acquired from
A change that a nurse manager could implement that would help improve patient care is hourly rounding. In order to implement this change successfully, the nurse manager needs to clearly communicate the expectations, and then follow up with good monitoring. When the nurse manager sees the staff meeting the expectations the staff should be acknowledged rewarded/recognized and celebrated. On the other side, if the staff is not meeting the expectations they should be reminded, coached, and counseled. Sticking to the communicated expectations can have powerful results when the nurse manager diligently and consistently puts the plan into practice.
Justification to Improve Patient Care and Perspective Theories to Support the Change
As a manager an area of change that could improve patient care is hourly rounding. Hourly rounding involves rounding on patients every one to two hours and practicing a series of 8 specific behaviors. There are seven recognized reasons patients use their call bells. These seven reasons include bathroom/bedpan assistance (15%), IV/Pump alarm (15%), pain medication (10%), needed a nurse or CNA (9%), position assistance (4%), accidental hits of the call light (13%), miscellaneous reasons (13%). Studies show by using the hourly rounding on patients the percent can decrease by - bathroom 40%, pain 35%, positioning 29%, Iv/pump alarms 40%, and miscellaneous 39% (Studer Group, 2010).
Hourly rounding is more than just “checking in” every hour. Once this practice becomes part of the nurse’s workflow, the organization will begin to see decreases in lost charges, incidental overtime, med errors, and an increase in nursing and patient satisfaction.
Strategies and Internal and External Need for this Change:
The first step to implementing this change is to gather baseline data on falls, hospital acquired decubiti and call light statistics. Falls and decubiti information may be acquired from
References: Grohar-Murray, M. E., & Langan, J. (2011). Leadership and Management in Nursing (4th ed.). United States of America: Pearson. Studer Group. (2010). The Nurse Leader Handbook. United States of America: Fire Starter Publishing.