Learning from experience: Revolutionizing vascular care through nursing morbidity and mortality conferences

Traditional morbidity and mortality (M&M) conferences often lack nursing involvement or perspectives despite nurses being frontline caregivers. On a vascular surgery unit, pre-intervention data revealed concerning gaps in nurses' medical knowledge and low confidence in escalating patient concerns to the vascular team.

To implement a structured nursing-led M&M conference to improve nurses' clinical knowledge, care confidence, and interprofessional collaboration in vascular care.

A structured implementation approach was employed, utilizing a dedicated electronic project management system. Two nurses collaborated on each case review that was selected from safety events, mortality cases, and emerging patient care themes. Cases incorporated systematic literature reviews and evidence integration, with mentorship from nursing leadership and Advanced Practice Practitioners. Pre- and post-implementation surveys using 5-point Likert scales assessed perceived medical knowledge, care confidence, and comfort with escalation.

Post-implementation data revealed large improvements across all metrics. Medical knowledge scores increased from 3.0 to 4.7, care confidence from 3.2 to 4.3, provider communication comfort from 2.3 to 4.1, and concern escalation confidence from 2.2 to 4.3. The initiative effectively addressed failure-to-rescue risks by improving complication identification and provider-nurse communication.

Structured nursing-led M&M conferences significantly enhance clinical competence, interdisciplinary communication, and patient safety outcomes, demonstrating the value of inclusive case review processes in elevating nursing practice standards.