APN-led nursing rounds: an emphasis on evidence-based nursing care

In today's healthcare environment, nursing staff are challenged to care for patients with increasingly complex needs in an ever-changing environment. Nurses are expected to stay up to date on a tremendous number of institutional initiatives, best practice guidelines, and policies and procedures. These practice imperatives are often disseminated through passive means of information-sharing such as staff meetings and electronic mail. In this setting, it is difficult for nurses to simultaneously focus on incorporating practice updates while continuing to value basic nursing functions such as oral care, skin care, and incontinence management. The concept of Interventional Patient Hygiene emphasises that basic nursing functions are not only tasks, but also important evidence-based interventions that contribute to improved health for the patient. Interventional Patient Hygiene facilitates the integration of science and practice. This article describes a quality improvement intervention, Advanced practice nurse-led nursing rounds, which supports Interventional Patient Hygiene and be used to help staff integrate best practices while balancing the multiple priorities inherent in nursing care.