Background:
Patient education in our organization historically had been delivered in a single session. This was observed to overwhelm the stroke patient and lead to missed documentation by the nursing staff.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a robust daily patient education plan that included: delivery of patient education in smaller increments with a visual management system and incremental documentation by nursing staff to increase documentation accuracy, as well as a mechanism to indicate when family presence is required for education.
Methods:
Our hospital, a high volume academic medical center, implemented a unit led education initiative beginning in January 2016. A core team of nurses worked to define the education pathway for the acute stroke patient covering three days, the average length of stay. The team included a color coded visual management system, placed outside of patient rooms, to facilitate nursing communication of patient progression and status along this education pathway. Nursing staff were educated on the newly created pathway, visual management systems, and the documentation process. The new education process was initiated in May 2016. Patient charts were audited for nursing accuracy in education documentation for the three months preceding implementation and compared to the three months post-implementation.
Compared with the pre-implementation period, when documentation on the core unit was 99% (n= 91), the post-implementation period showed an improvement to100% (n=80).
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a robust education plan developed by nursing improves documentation. Further research is warranted to determine the effectiveness of extending model to other units providing care to stroke patients across the organization.