58 l Nursing2018 l Volume 48, Number 5 www.Nursing2018.com AS A NEW GRADUATE NURSE in the residency program at Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, Del., I was required to present an… Click to show full abstract
58 l Nursing2018 l Volume 48, Number 5 www.Nursing2018.com AS A NEW GRADUATE NURSE in the residency program at Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, Del., I was required to present an evidencebased project at the end of my program. The project was to focus on finding a solution to a problem encountered in the hospital. As the nurse resident for the 40-bed medical-surgical unit, I recognized a problem with how we were educating our patients about their medications. For safe and effective therapy, patients need to understand their medications, especially at discharge. But all too often, when I asked patients to tell me something about their medication, their responses were disheartening. Most of my patients couldn’t say why they were taking certain medications. Many of them explained that they took them “because the doctor told me to.” My observations were supported by the data on communication about medications according to Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey scores on the medical-surgical unit. The score, was only 33.3% in January 2016. The HCAHPS survey publicly reports data that measure how well patients understand the purpose of their medications and potential side effects of those medications at discharge.1 (See Understanding HCAHPS.) Rather than providing patients with multiple pages of complex and overwhelming education for each medication, I wanted to find an easier and more effective way to educate them about their medications. Before this project started, we’d begin the education process at discharge. Now education about medications begins on admission. This allows patients and families time to understand their medications and potential side effects. The objective of my project was to improve the HCAHPS scores across all areas that
               
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