The Nursing Department recently completed the first round of data collection to assess staff perceptions of the quality of care on almost all units at BWH. The survey is one of a number of measures being used to determine the impact of the new Patient Care Model on the quality of care at the unit level. A second round of data collection is now underway, with plans to have all units surveyed by the end of the summer. This repeat survey is timed to occur about one year after the new model was implemented. Findings from the two surveys will be compared to see if there are significant differences in staff perceptions of quality, and where these differences are.
Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The response rate was
43 percent.
The results of the first survey have been given to the Nurse Managers who will share them with the staff on each unit. Overall, physicians rated the quality of care significantly higher than the other two groups.
Specific findings varied according to unit. Overall, the items regarding Clinical Care scored the highest ratings, with Staff reliability in recognizing and reporting danger signs or undesired patient outcomes and Attentiveness of staff to activities that relieve patient discomfort, such as pain, nausea, trouble breathing, or trouble sleeping being the two items with the highest scores. The items related to Personalized Caring were the next highest scoring group, followed by those concerning Teamwork.
The most important comparisons will be the differences in unit scores before and after the new model was put into place. These differences are likely to reflect many changes that have occurred on individual units in addition to the new Patient
Care Model. Taken together with both the written comments and administrative data, the survey findings provide a good sense of staffs' and other caregivers' views of the quality of care on each unit, including specific strengths and areas that need further improvement.
Many thanks to each of you who
took the time to complete this survey.
Your continued help is much appreci-
ated as we repeat this process.
(submitted by Lucy Feild, PhD, RN, CS)