Date of Award

Spring 2020

Document Type

DNP Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

Committee Chairperson

Cheryl Monturo, PhD, MBE, ACNP-BC

Committee Member

Jacquelyn Owens, DNP, CRNP

Committee Member

Cheryl, D. Schlamb, DNP, CRNP

Committee Member

Veronica Wilbur, Ph.D., APRN-FNP, CNE, FAANP

Abstract

In today’s current healthcare environment, there has been an extensive focus on patient satisfaction, and healthcare leaders struggle with the options of utilizing a registered nurse or a non-nurse when making outreach follow-up calls to recently discharged patients. Healthcare leaders find that designing, implementing and managing an efficient telephone outreach program can be challenging, however, this has become a necessary aspect of the patient continuum of care plan. Studies demonstrate that patient follow-up post-discharge increases patient satisfaction and their compliance with post-discharge instructions, thereby reducing readmission rates and emergency room visits (Meek, Williams, & Unterschuetz (2018). This quality improvement project assessed the impact of the nurse versus the non-nurse led telephone outreach to adult patients discharged from an acute care facility within six weeks. Using a quantitative design, a simple random sampling of 55 patients pre-project and 55 patients post-discharge who were discharged from an acute care facility was done. Nurse Case Managers in a managed care organization carried out the outreach calls to the patients. Key findings showed that nurse-led outreach calls increased patient satisfaction, however, the nurses will need to be well versed in the patient’s diagnosis, and to save cost, healthcare administrators may consider employing Licensed Practical Nurses who will be under the supervision of the Registered Nurse.

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