Increasing patient mobility through an individualized goal-centered hospital mobility program: A quasi-experimental...

Hospital-acquired functional decline due to decreased mobility has negative impacts on patient outcomes. Current nurse-directed mobility programs lack a standardized approach to set achievable mobility goals.

We aimed to describe implementation and outcomes from a nurse-directed patient mobility program.

The quality improvement mobility program on the project unit was compared to a similar control unit providing usual care. The Johns Hopkins Mobility Goal Calculator was created to guide a daily patient mobility goal based on the level of mobility impairment.

On the project unit, patient mobility increased from 5.2 to 5.8 on the Johns Hopkins Highest Level of Mobility score, mobility goal attainment went from 54.2% to 64.2%, and patients exceeding the goal went from 23.3% to 33.5%. All results were significantly higher than the control unit.

An individualized, nurse-directed, patient mobility program using daily mobility goals is a successful strategy to improve daily patient mobility in the hospital.