Emergency Department of a Pediatric Hospital through Hourly Rounding - Research Paper Example

A tool that has been found to be useful in the improvement of care, in the ED is a client satisfaction survey. The satisfaction of clients is a vital requirement of selecting an ED for service reception and making recommendations to others. Keeping all clients satisfied is difficult. However, a high level of satisfaction can be attained by working on the indicators that are related, as well as working on their improvement.

Doing hourly rounds in the ED department will aid in the provision of quality services. The study aims to research the ways in which the satisfaction of clients can be improved and its importance. The purpose of hourly rounding, as clearly articulated by nurses, improves staff satisfaction, patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction (Frampton & Charmell, 2009). There is a need to get more proactive with the children while identifying and anticipating the needs of the patient. This is aimed at waiting for patients to ring alarms and bells.

Clear education and communication about this process are vital for the staff members, in order for them to know what it means for patients and the reason they are being requested to carry out a task that is new to them. The nursing staff at Hopkins children’s hospital conducted an initiative on the workability of hourly rounds (Frampton & Charmell, 2009). The study was carried out with the belief that it will improve the satisfaction of patients as well as give the nurses less stress and more control.

Traditionally, hospital nurses worked in a mode that was more reactive via response to calls from the parent or the patient. This normally resulted in the loss of management control in care delivery. Nurses, via the hourly rounds, schedule visits that are hourly scripted with all patients that focus on questioning patients on the level of their pain, ensuring the comfort of the patients, and asking the patient if they require visiting the bathroom. It also ensures that items that the patient requires are within reach and that they have met all the needs the patient might have (Garber et al, 2010).

In addition, confidence in the nurse’s return will make the patient less inclined to request the presence of the nurse. This system proactively cares for the child patient by making sure that the nurses have increased control over the management of their time by getting individualized and quality time for every one of the patients (Garber et al, 2010). Other hospitals have also implemented this idea on hourly rounds and seen a decrease of 50% in incidences of patients falling from their beds. Parents also look at nurses doing hourly rounds as responding more to the needs of the child patient, for example, pain relief in a manner that is timely.

The first response from most nurses to the protocol of hourly rounds was that as busy as they were, they could not meet this extra expectation (Garber, 2010). However, nurses in the unit division who participated in the project since it kicked off have begun to see the hourly round value as evidence of best practice. One nurse said that while she was at first hesitant, what she had witnessed had convinced her that it helped improve patient satisfaction and patient safety in their emergency departments.

She also said that the project had aided in relieving the stress parents felt with their children in new environments (Garber et al, 2010). The study also showed that the parents of the child patient were more satisfied with the outcome of the project, in the emergency department than the children themselves (Kate, 2011). Patient satisfaction was, however, lower in children with increased education levels than those with limited education. The difference in gender, place of residence, and admission time had no effect on the satisfaction of both children patients and their parents.

The highest satisfaction with the performance of the emergency department was recorded at night when the children patients were alone without their parents (Keele, 2011). This shows that the patients appreciated the initiative too, even if they did not show any improvement in their appreciation during the day, as their parents and relatives were around. Thus, the project was essential for ensuring comfort and peace of mind for children who had no one to serve their needs during hours when their parents and relatives were not there.

In conclusion, the findings show that for pediatric hospitals to give emergency department services that are optimal and gain the satisfaction of the parents and children, they need to tie hourly rounds to other interventions like nursing services, processes of clinical care, and patient treatment procedures, among other interventions. For these improvements to be made, hourly rounds are necessary in order to build an understanding of what the patient’s needs are.