The practice guidelines and policies must be established, major stakeholders must own the new policy, and structured teams must comprehend their obligations and roles to integrate the latest approaches at Galilee Medical Center effectively. This education session will train nursing and medical staff directly involved in patient care on the policy understanding, skills, and expertise required to effectively minimize hospital-associated infections, especially CAUTIs at Galilee Medical Center.
Promoting Nurses’ Buy-In
Transformations and changes within a healthcare facility will likely face resistance if the management does not involve nursing and medical staff in the decision-making. As Galilee Medical Center transforms to respond to high CAUTI levels, staff buy-in to the policies, changes, transformations, and innovations is more critical in successfully implementing the new guidelines (French-Bravo & Crow, 2020). Implementing the new policies will likely be effective and sustained over time when more nursing and medical staff members accept and support the changes. The nursing and medical teams play vital roles in the success of implementing the new procedures and policies. At the medication forefront, nursing staff directly care for patients, providing patients with firsthand information and experiences and the ability to develop data utilizing patient feedback, statistics, and facts.
Outstanding management from nurse leaders permits more effective communications, influences, and success. Staff-based decision-making, care coordination, and collaboration are improved when nurse directors and nursing staff have a positive association (Mainz, 2022). The new policies can be successfully implemented at Galilee Medical when nurse managers and nurses work together as a team in policy formulation and critical decision-making activities.
Early Success Indicators
How the medical and nursing teams perceive the new care coordination and collaboration, catheter application, and handwashing policies is critical in comprehending the preparedness to embrace and execute the practice guidelines. The nursing team can effectively implement the policies if they buy into the new policy guidelines and offer precise inputs and feedback to ensure the policy’s success (French-Bravo & Crow, 2020). Galilee Medical Center management can measure service and care quality through outcome measurement performance indicators. These pointers can be associated with medical care outcomes, structures, and processes. Communication, medical accountability, care transition improvements, reduced CAUTI levels, improved care quality, and patient safety is early success indicators. Other indicators will include nursing staff regularly following handwashing hygiene when handling patients.
Impacts of Policy and Practice Guidelines
Handwashing, catheter application, and care coordination policies are aimed at minimizing the present 1.80 infections per 1000 line days below CAUTI’s benchmark mean of 1.59 infections per 1000 line days. The care quality can be enhanced by developing guidelines and rules. In order to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and have the same level of responsibility and access to resources, an organization must have clear policies in place (French-Bravo & Crow, 2020). When a healthcare facility does not have well-defined policies and procedures, inconsistencies arise and lead to deficits. Care providers at Galilee Medical Facility need to follow established recommendations and practices to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), which threaten patient safety.
The recommended policies shall directly affect case management, nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel and healthcare providers at Galilee Medical Center. The policies need interprofessional collaboration and care coordination approaches. The proposed board will attend education programs and handle the successes and failures of the new handwashing, catheter application, and care coordination policies (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017). The interdisciplinary teams will each play roles in care coordination and catheter insertion and removal to minimize HAIs and CAUTI cases. Firstly, the committee will examine the present CAUTI cases to comprehend why they are increasing and how gaps and external factors lead to their increase. Comprehending the causes of CAUTI is primary to designing care coordination and catheter insertion and removal plans. The board will then create a medical team to deal with the safe insertion and removal of CAUTIs once the information is acquired. The objective is for patients to be informed of these policies before catheter insertion to avoid hiccups.
Impact of Policy Implementation on Nurses’ Work
HAIs and CAUTIs increase the readmission rate in Galilee Medical Center. HAIs and CAUTIs are expensive for the hospital and stressful for patients and nursing personnel. Best medical care begins with excellent hand hygiene. CAUTIs increase medical costs by increasing hospital stay by 2-4 days. The policies thus safeguard the reputation and image of Galilee by making sure that nurses reduce CAUTI levels (Aiken et al., 2017). HAIs and CAUTIs increase care costs and personnel workloads that need to be reduced. The nursing team, the biggest portion of the primary caregivers directly involved in patient care, is uniquely positioned to lower the CAUTI rates. Nurse workloads and burnout will be significantly reduced by minimizing avoidable CAUTIs.
Concerns Over the Policy
For the above standards to be attained, established and accurate methods must be applied. Galilee Medical Center hopes that the abovementioned EBP efforts will aid in achieving regional, national, and local goals. Improving the handoff procedure would, for instance, ensure that patients always have access to the same high-quality educational resources, consumers are never overwhelmed by overly complicated discharge instructions, and drug mishandling is kept to a minimum (Aiken et al., 2017). In addition, patients should be reliably able to schedule follow-up appointments at the facility at times, allowing them to take the measures they need to recover without requiring further medical interventions. On the other hand, preventing the spread of germs by washing hands thoroughly can significantly reduce the number of hospital HAIs.
Interpreting the Policy for Nursing Staff
Implementing the policy’s measures involves several considerations, including clarifying the policy for nursing staff and recognizing potential CAUTIs as soon as patients are admitted. Accurate reporting of CAUTIs is the medical and nursing staff’s obligation to deal with CAUTI. The CAUTI history of each patient should be a standard question for nurses and other medical personnel to ask (Mainz, 2022). The patient’s date of catheter insertion and removal and the name of their treating physician must be gathered if catheter insertion was performed at any point in their lifetime. To determine if a patient is readmission and whether or not their case needs to be recorded, it is necessary to know when their catheter insertion took place. Although nurses do not have the final say over whether or not a patient is readmitted, they play a critical role in identifying bariatric and post-operative patients through physical assessments and collecting relevant medical histories.
Importance of Policy and Practice Guidelines in Nurses’ Work
To decrease hospital readmissions, nurses must take the initiative. Nurses have the skills necessary to assess their patients’ preparedness for discharge, identify a suitable post-discharge care setting, coordinate care across different venues and providers, and include the patient and family in developing a personalized treatment plan (Aiken et al., 2017). Nurses can spend more time caring for patients directly if they have a structured catheter application plan, with numerous parties responsible for different areas of care coordination. If readmissions can be reduced, nurse staffing levels can be increased for better patient safety and care.
Role of Nursing Staff in Implementation
Because of their direct patient care and involvement in the catheter removal and insertion process, nurses play a crucial role in lowering CAUTI rates. They must draft and review the CAUTI documentation with the patient and their carers. CAUTI documentation, containing instructions and reminders about when to return to remove the catheter, is physically handed to the patient by a nurse (French-Bravo & Crow, 2020). All parties involved must have access to catheter insertion and removal instructions, instructions nurses have reviewed with the patients, and thorough follow-up to ensure the policies are functioning correctly. When it comes time to give the patient their paperwork, the nurses will read over the directions first. Primary caregivers have a wealth of experience with CAUTI cases so they can review the data quickly and effectively.
Training Nursing Staff on the Policy
We have already established that the nursing staff plays a crucial role in assessing and distributing the patient’s catheter application documentation. Nurses can spot any missed instructions by the policy’s mandates throughout this review process. Nurses are the most critical factor in preventing excessive CAUTI rates caused by the wrong catheter application. All nurses should receive education on the catheter application care that must be provided to all CAUTI patients, including consultations with the patient’s doctor, primary caregivers, nutritionist, psychiatrist, social worker, and other practitioners (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017). All discharge paperwork must include the doctors’ names and clinic details. It is crucial to provide new grad nurses with training on this procedure and backups in case they get confused or forget. Nurses may be tasked with guiding clinicians like social workers and therapists who are not generally involved in the discharge process in documenting their specific discharge recommendations.
Training Process
To educate the nursing staff on the new requirements for hand washing, catheter insertion and removal, and care coordination policies concerning CAUTIs, a 2-hour session will be held. Nurses will be asked to consider integrating hand washing practices, safe catheter application, and care coordination to minimize CAUTIs during the conference. This will help nurses spot problems in patient care and address them (French-Bravo & Crow, 2020). A nurse’s guide will be provided with information on which specialists the patient must see during catheter insertion and removal. We will review these policies with the patient before catheter application to ensure no resistance. The nurses will also learn their specific duties in care coordination and interprofessional teams.
The unit’s nurse manager will be present for the training to field any questions, comments, or criticisms from the nurses (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017). The Nurses will practice the new catheter application requirements by participating in simulated catheter insertion and removal at the end of the program. During this training session, the nurses will gain practical knowledge and a better understanding of potential catheter application hurdles.
Training Material for Skills Development
A pamphlet outlining the rules of the new policy, its rationale, and its intended outcomes will be distributed to each participant. The brochure will also provide contact information for the mandated follow-up providers so that it can be referred to as a resource in the future. Besides, the brochure will include the appropriate contact information for reporting CAUTIs, reinforcing the message that everyone is obliged to report CAUTIs and prevent any underreporting. Finally, we will include the contact details of the major stakeholders so that team members can get in touch with them if they have any questions, comments, or concerns about the new policy.
Conclusion
As a means of cutting costs and reducing the number of CAUTI levels, Galilee Medical Center has suggested policies to limit the present 1.80 infections per 1000 line days below CAUTI’s benchmark mean of 1.59 infections per 1000 line days. A well-executed training program for all staff members affected by the policy is crucial to its smooth rollout. With the help of this program, everyone on the team will be aware of how they can contribute to better patient outcomes and fewer hospital CAUTI rates.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2017). Guide to patient and family engagement in hospital quality and safety. https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/hospital/engagingfamilies/index.html
Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D., Griffiths, P., Rafferty, A. M., Bruyneel, L., McHugh, M., … & Sermeus, W. (2017). Nursing skill mix in European hospitals: a cross-sectional study of the association with mortality, patient ratings, and quality of care. BMJ quality & safety, 26(7), 559-568.
French-Bravo, M., & Crow, G. (n.d.). Shared Governance: The Role of Buy-in in Bringing About Change. Shared governance: The role of buy-in in bringing about change. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJI N/TableofContents/Vol-20-2015/No2-May-2015/Articles-Previous-Topics/Role-of-Buy-InIn-Change.html
Mainz, J. (n.d.). Defining and classifying clinical indicators for quality improvement. Academic.oup.com. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article/15/6/523/1823652
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