Willing to walk for the team: an innovative, evidence-based strategy to support nurses when reassigned

Purpose:
The goal of the task force is to provide nurses with tools and knowledge to feel competent providing safe patient care when reassigned and to enhance the relationships among the nurses within the division.

Significance:
Literature reports that reassignment of nurses can affect patient safety as well as nursing satisfaction and quality of care. To address concerns voiced by nurses, a task force of Nurse Clinicians convened to establish a process that would better prepare nurses when reassigned.

Strategy and Implementation:
In collaboration with a training and development Manager from Human Resources, a workshop “Willing to Walk for the Team”, was developed to focus on reassignment, trust, team building, and communication among nurses. The workshop consists of addressing specific educational needs for each nurse as well as sharing the unique aspects of each unit. This evidence-based project consisted of creating brochures and orientation checklists for each unit. Each nurse has completed a reassignment survey, which assessed their comfort level caring for patients on other units.

Evaluation:
To date, 95% of nurses have rated the workshop as good to excellent. Nurses have also expressed positive feedback and feel empowered when reassigned to other nursing units. Ongoing evaluation includes; follow up staff surveys, monitoring of patient satisfaction data, NDNQI data, and event reports.

Implications for Practice:
In conjunction with the orientation checklists, the reassignment survey was used to develop individualized education plans which help to identify needs for the nurse when they attended the workshop.