Discharge instructions and medication directions can be overwhelming for older adults, which can lead to potential medication errors, noncompliance, readmissions, and patient safety concerns. At a specialty lung clinic, the goal is to improve patient safety and to decrease the chance of errors by standardizing the discharge process via a Teach-Back education policy and protocol. Without consistency, there is a potential for mistakes and misunderstandings. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) considers the Teach-Back discharge method as best practice and should be considered universal practice among health care workers. Using the Always Use Teach-Back Toolkit for education and evaluation provided strategies and resources for the project. Five nurse practitioners and a physician assistant, who are responsible for discharge instructions, participated in the study by viewing an online teaching module and completing written surveys. The Conviction and Confidence Tool revealed 100% of the clinicians agreed that Teach-Back education was '10-Very Important' and were '10-Very Confident' in their abilities to apply the Teach-Back methods using a 1-10 Likert scale. Likewise, the practitioners showed significant improvements when comparing the pre-implementation and one-month, post-policy implementation, as indicated in the paired t test of the second part of the Conviction and Confidence Teach-Back Tool. Nursing plays a pivotal role in positive social change by using an evidence-based education method, which improves patient care through medication compliance and decreased readmission rates, thus showing significant transformation in chronic health management.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:waldenu.edu/oai:scholarworks.waldenu.edu:dissertations-4787 |
| Date | 01 January 2017 |
| Creators | Haire, Tracey Marie |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks |
| Source Sets | Walden University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies |
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