For Every Nurse--The Right Information at the Right Time

Purpose:
NDNQI RN Satisfaction survey results revealed a need for a consistent, streamlined approach to communication throughout the organization. The main challenge was that there was no central location to post and no house-wide vehicle to distribute nursing-relevant material.

Significance:
Literature showsskilled, effective communication is a vital component of healthy work environments. There is a direct relationship between effective communication and staff satisfaction, retention and engagement. This, in turn, positively impacts patient satisfaction and patient outcomes.

Strategy and Implementation:
A multi-disciplinary communication team was formed to create a comprehensive yet streamlined plan for communicating with staff; to ensure consistent and timely information to nurses across all departments and to make information readily available. A nursing-specific site was created on the hospital's intranet (the eNet) which was easily accessible on each clinical desktop. This site was named the “Nurses' Station” and initially contained unit-specific dashboards, which were intended to guide unit-based performance improvement. A short time later, the team added nursing reports on key improvement initiatives, daily news updates(“hot topics”), policy updates, educational presentations, CE opportunities, educational calendars and clinical newsletters, introducing the Nurses' Station as a “one-stop-shop” for everything a nurse would need to know. The Nurses' Station continues to evolve as staff members offer feedback and suggestions to improve the site to better meet their needs.

Evaluation:
100% of nurses surveyed three months post-implementation felt that the Nurses' Station was a very effective and useful communication tool. They also felt that they were able to easily navigate through the site and find necessary information. The Nurses' Station averages over 57 hits per day.

Implications for Practice:
This framework can be easily replicated. Creating a site similar to the “Nurses' Station” can provide an avenue through which nursing leaders can streamline communication and offer a “one-stop-shop” so that nurses do not have to go to so many places for the "need to know" information.