Weathering the storm: nurses' satisfaction with a mobile admission nurse service

To evaluate nurses' satisfaction with, and perceptions of, a practice innovation introducing a Mobile Admission Nurse service.

Staff nurses identified that the admission process, while crucial to initiating safe and appropriate acute care, can be disruptive and interfere with care in progress. A pilot project implementing the role of a Mobile Admission Nurse was introduced to address this need.

A self-developed web-based survey was administered to a convenience sample of 104 RNs who had used the services during the pilot project.

Staff nurses (n = 78) reported a chaotic, demanding work environment within which the admission process disrupts the flow of care. The Mobile Admission Nurse helped them in 'weathering the storm', which was the overarching theme that emerged during data analysis.

Having an admission nurse complete the admission process steadied workflow processes for nurses. Improved patient safety and increased staff and family satisfaction were also reported. The strongly positive feedback led to expansion of the service.

Proactively redesigning work processes, using a structured theoretical model such as the (Plan-Do-Study-Act) PDSA approach, may improve outcomes in a chaotic practice environment.