Improving Patient Satisfaction through Reducing Nurse Overtime and Redesigning Nurse Staffing and Scheduling

<p>Increasing cardiac device patient demands within a large Midwest healthcare institution resulted in significant increases in staff shift requirements and corresponding patient complaints. The quality improvement project aimed to decrease patient complaints by executing a standard baseline daily full time equivalent (FTE) staffing strategy for future schedules, increasing nursing FTE, and maintaining institutional staffing standards. Standard calculated daily nursing requirements targeted 17.0 FTE. Implementation occurred over a three month period including schedule reprocessing, a pending incremental nursing FTE request, and a restructuring of unit based scheduling and paid time off guidelines. The completed schedule accurately captured staffing requirements for 100% of the shifts over an eight week schedule while maintaining individual staff baseline FTE. Anticipated improvements include a decrease in 25% of patient complaints and will be evaluated during the first six months post project implementation. The clinical nurse leader theme is <em>Care Environment Manager</em>: Team Manager focusing on refining nursing working conditions to advance patient care. Maintaining appropriate staff ratios and reducing associated error risks demonstrates a rationale for improved nurse job satisfaction preceding an improvement in patient care and satisfaction.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Level thesis:degree_level

Project/Capstone - Global access

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Romme, Abby

Contributors dc:contributor

• Elena Capella

• Nursing
• Staffing
• Scheduling
• Nursing Administration
• Other Nursing

Repository record dc:identifier

https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/169

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.usfca.edu:capstone-1176