A Quality Improvement Project to Increase Nurse Attendance on Pediatric Family Centered Rounds

Family centered rounds (FCR) occur at the bedside and include the patient and their family when creating a daily medical care plan. Despite recommendations that family centered rounds (FCR) with nursing staff be standard practice, nurses were frequently absent from FCR at our institution.

To increase nurse attendance on hospitalist FCR to 80% in three months. Secondary outcomes were to investigate the relationship between nurse-to-patient ratio and nurse attendance, and to assess for change in perception toward FCR.

This resident driven interrupted time series study included a focus group to identify barriers to nurse attendance on FCR, four plan-do-study-act cycles, and surveys to assess for changes in perceptions toward FCR. Control charts, SHEWHART rules, linear regression and chi squared analysis were used for data analysis.

Nurse attendance on FCR improved from 30% to 59%. There was no correlation between nurse-to-patient ratio and nurse attendance on FCR. Surveys indicated increase in the perception that it is helpful to have a nurse present at FCR.

A resident driven quality improvement project can increase nurse presence on FCR.