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Laird-Fick HS, Solomon D, Jodoin C, Dwamena FC, Alexander K, Rawsthorne L, Banker T, Gourineni N, Aloka F, Frankel RM, Smith RC. Training residents and nurses to work as a patient-centered care team on a medical ward. Patient education and counseling. 2011 Jul 1; 84(1):90-7.
Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects. OBJECTIVE: To train medical residents and nurses to work together as a patient-centered care (PCC) team on a medical ward and test its feasibility, nurses'' learning, and patient outcomes. METHOD: Working with administrative leadership, we consolidated residents'' patients on one 32-bed ward. Already training residents in an evidence-based patient-centered method, we now trained 5 nurse leaders similarly, and they then trained all staff nurses. A national consultant visited twice. Specific team-building activities for nurses and residents fostered ward interactions. We used a retrospective pre/post/6-month post-design to evaluate nurses'' knowledge and self-efficacy of patient-centered skills. Patients were assigned non-randomly to our unit or comparison units from our emergency room; using a post-test only design, the primary endpoint was patient satisfaction. RESULTS: 28 trained nurses showed improvement in knowledge (p = 0.02) and self-efficacy (p = 0.001). 81 treatment patients showed no improvement in satisfaction (p = 0.44). CONCLUSION: Training nurses in patient-centered practices were effective. Unique in this country, we also trained nurses and residents together as a PCC team on a medical ward and showed it was feasible and well accepted. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: We provide a template for team training and urge that others explore this important new area and contribute to its further development.
