Nursing care on the Sixth Floor Medical Surgical Unit involves a high number of geriatric patients. Not surprisingly, call bell usage is high due, in large part, to the multiple care issues associated with hospitalization of older adults.
Responding to call bells can consume a large proportion of time, and in many instances, the patients’ reasons for using a call bell do not require nursing intervention. Inappropriate use of nurse time and ineffective response to call bells leads to dissatisfaction by both nurses and patients.
At a recent Sixth Floor Unit Practice Council meeting, Larry Houser, R.N., Evidence-Based Nursing Practice Decreases Call Bell Usage shared a research article from the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Nursing entitled, “Effects of Nursing Rounds on Patients’ Call Light Use, Satisfaction, and Safety.” The authors of the article reported data from 27 nursing units in 14 hospitals that showed decreased usage of call bells after instituting a special staff rounding protocol.
Using the evidence from this research study, Sixth Floor Unit Practice Council decided to initiate a comparable study. With approval by nurse manager Paula Labonte, R.N., practice council members began baseline data collection of call bell frequency and the type of request that initiated the call (bathroom or bed assist; IV pump problems; accidental call; request for pain medication; Nurse or C.N.A. assistance; patient repositioning; or other). Findings showed that after six weeks
of implementation, the total number of call bells decreased on Six West from 349 to 273; and on Six South they decreased from 583 to 152. In addition, findings showed specific areas where anticipating needs can prevent unnecessary patient calls. For example, anticipating that a patient may need a pain medication or routinely checking IV pumps when already in the room can eliminate many calls before they are made. The nursing staff has been empowered by learning ways in which
they can better prioritize their time. The goal is to continue to implement the rounding protocol and observe changes in nurse-sensitive quality indicators including improved patient and staff satisfaction and decreased fall rates.
Results of this project were shared at Management Council by Monica Klock, R.N., who discussed how efficient response to call bells has had an impact on overall organization in terms of patient satisfaction as well as employee satisfaction. |
