Clinical nurses' perspectives on discharge practice changes from participating in a translational research study.

Abstract

To describe clinical nurses' experiences with practice change associated with participation in a multi-site nursing translational research study implementing new protocols for hospital discharge readiness assessment. Nurses' participation in translational research studies provides an opportunity to evaluate how implementation of new nursing interventions affects care processes within a local context. These insights can provide information that leads to successful adoption and sustainability of the intervention. Semi-structured focus groups from 30 of 33 participating study hospitals lead by team nurse researchers. Nurses reported improved and earlier awareness of patients' discharge needs, changes in discharge practices, greater patient/family involvement in discharge, synergy and enhanced discharge processes, and implementation challenges. Participating nurses related the benefits of participation in nursing research. Participation in a unit-level translational research project was a successful strategy for engaging nurses in practice change to improve hospital discharge. Leading unit-based implementation of a structured discharge readiness assessment including nurse assessment and patient self-assessment encourages earlier awareness of patients' discharge needs, improved patient assessment and greater patient/family involvement in discharge preparation. Integrating discharge readiness assessments into existing discharge care promotes communication between health team members that facilitates a timely, coordinated discharge.