Improving Patient Experience Through Nursing Satisfaction.

Patient experience is a vital component of quality health care. In our institution we sought to improve both nursing satisfaction and collaboration, in conjunction with improving patient experience, predicting the two are directly proportional. We hypothesized that a more satisfied nursing team would result in an overall improvement in patient experience. To explore this hypothesis, we implemented multiple process changes to create an advanced practitioner-directed floor (APDF) on our 28-bed trauma, medical-surgical unit. These changes included advanced practitioner (AP) 24-hr coverage, implementation of trauma patient information packets, consistent daily rounds with the nurse facilitator and/or bedside registered nurse (RN), and increased floor presence of the AP, to facilitate improved communication between the multidisciplinary team. Nursing satisfaction surveys, postdischarge patient telephone debriefings, and patient Press Ganey scores were analyzed to assess nursing satisfaction, as well as patient satisfaction pre- and postimplemented changes. Our findings demonstrated that, following APDF implementation, RNs felt more respected, stated that the trauma team was more collaborative, and, in addition, overall patient and nursing satisfaction improved. On the basis of our data collection and perspective from nursing staff and nursing management, we support the institution of an APDF to target improvements in nursing satisfaction, by focusing on collaboration and professional practice.