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Department

Medical Intensive Care Unit

Position/Job Title

Nurse Manager

Description

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to improve patient outcomes and increase Background: Many hospitals are being tasked with becoming creative with staffing as the national nursing shortage continues to increase. One creative way many hospitals have combat staffing concerns is with the implementation of a vRN (Hughes et al., 2021). The main goal of the vRN is to decrease workload of the nurses caring directly for the patient at the bedside through visual monitoring, chart reviews, or assistance with specific tasks (Lisk et al., 2020). Methods: The unit leadership team held meetings with staff to identify areas where staff felt the vRN would be helpful. A unit Task Force was also created to outline specific workflows to ensure efficiency, standardization of tasks and achieve key stakeholder buy-in. Each room had a two-way audio and visual feedback device installed, so the patient and RN could both see and clearly hear each other. To monitor improved patient outcomes, the following nurse-sensitive indicators were analyzed: falls, hospital-acquired pressure injuries, number of call lights, patient experience (Press Ganey Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems [HCAHPS]) data, and time to discharge. Regarding staff satisfaction, voluntary RN turnover and RN satisfaction surveys (Press Ganey National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators RN Survey and hospital-specific satisfaction survey) are monitored. Results: The vRN role was started in May of 2024 and was fully up and running by June of 2024. In July of 2024, the unit had a record high HCAHPS score for their likelihood to recommend. Conclusion: The use of technology in healthcare, especially as a creative solution to our nursing shortage, is vital to the success of hospitals. Based on the impressive outcomes of this quality improvement project, the vRN role will be implemented throughout the hospital.

Publication Date

4-15-2025

Keywords

Henry Ford Jackson Hospital Research Symposium, quality improvement

Virtual Registered Nurse: Journey to Improved Outcomes and Increased Patient Satisfaction

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