A Quality Improvement Project to Increase Nurse Attendance on Pediatric Family Centered Rounds.

UNLABELLED: Family centered rounds (FCR) occur at the bedside and include the patient and their family when creating a daily medical care plan. Despite recommendations that family centered rounds (FCR) with nursing staff be standard practice, nurses were frequently absent from FCR at our institution.

OBJECTIVE: To increase nurse attendance on hospitalist FCR to 80% in three months. Secondary outcomes were to investigate the relationship between nurse-to-patient ratio and nurse attendance, and to assess for change in perception toward FCR.

METHODS: This resident driven interrupted time series study included a focus group to identify barriers to nurse attendance on FCR, four plan-do-study-act cycles, and surveys to assess for changes in perceptions toward FCR. Control charts, SHEWHART rules, linear regression and chi squared analysis were used for data analysis.

RESULTS: Nurse attendance on FCR improved from 30% to 59%. There was no correlation between nurse-to-patient ratio and nurse attendance on FCR. Surveys indicated increase in the perception that it is helpful to have a nurse present at FCR.

CONCLUSIONS: A resident driven quality improvement project can increase nurse presence on FCR.