Training residents and nurses to work as a patient-centered care team on a medical ward

To train medical residents and nurses to work together as a patient-centered care (PCC) team on a medical ward and test its feasibility, nurses' learning, and patient outcomes.

Working with administrative leadership, we consolidated residents' patients on one 32-bed ward. Already training residents in an evidence-based patient-centered method, we now trained 5 nurse leaders similarly, and they then trained all staff nurses. A national consultant visited twice. Specific team-building activities for nurses and residents fostered ward interactions. We used a retrospective pre/post/6-month post-design to evaluate nurses' knowledge and self-efficacy of patient-centered skills. Patients were assigned non-randomly to our unit or comparison units from our emergency room; using a post-test only design, the primary endpoint was patient satisfaction.

28 trained nurses showed improvement in knowledge (p=0.02) and self-efficacy (p=0.001). 81 treatment patients showed no improvement in satisfaction (p=0.44).

Training nurses in patient-centered practices were effective. Unique in this country, we also trained nurses and residents together as a PCC team on a medical ward and showed it was feasible and well accepted.

We provide a template for team training and urge that others explore this important new area and contribute to its further development.