Evaluation - Research Proposal Example

Proposal evaluation affiliation Hourly rounding was a common practice in the mid-twentieth century in United s, however, with the current increase of workload and increased nursing shortage the practice has declined. Hourly rounding is currently being advocated by various health organizations and stakeholders, due its benefit on the patient outcome and safety. In the new protocol for hourly rounding, certain actions have been added to increase the outcome of the patient. In essence, several research have been done to check on the merits of hourly rounding in regard to patient falls, patient satisfactions, call light usage and pain control among other patient safety measures.

Hourly rounding stipulates that nurses should perform hourly visits to the patients so as to meet their requirement and document the findings (Olrich, Kalman, & Nigolian, 2012).Evaluation of the study shall be based on the results that will be obtained from the various protocols in the study. The study shall utilise specific protocols that the nurses will check when they go for the hourly round. The checklist shall include an assessment of pain, patient positioning, need for toileting, and the patient asked if there is any other assistance needed.

The nurse shall fill in the checklist for any protocol that he/she has provided to the client. This shall be repeated for a period of three months to obtain credible data. While all these are being done on daily routine, the nurse should also note any incidence of patients fall since this is the primary aim of the study.After the study period has elapsed, the data will be analysed critically by assessing the patient outcomes when one hourly rounding was done. The patient outcomes include patient satisfaction with the services being offered and the rate at which the patients get better.

Patient perception to care shall also be evaluated as well as patient safety. It will be expected that the patient safety shall increase, which will be evidenced by reduced patient falls as well as reduced call light use (Hill et al., 2011). Long-term evaluation shall involve following up of the customer after discharge to check on the overall outcome of one hourly rounding. The overall inductive reasoning and conclusion may include increased nurse efficiency, staff recognition and continuity of care (Blakley, Kroth, & Gregson, 2011).

Hourly rounding may not be the ultimate prevention of falls among patient in the hospital; however, incorporating other strategies is vital to provide a synergy to minimise falls. Use of alarm system has been seen to be one method in which patients can alert the nurses when they are in need of a service. Studies have shown that it has provided a long-term method of preventing patient’s movements, which is the main predisposing factor to fall (Hutchings, Ward, & Bloodworth, 2013). The use of identification bracelets on individuals who are prone to fall have shown significant results in minimising falls among inpatients.

Those patients who were prone to falls are given an identification and the nurse provides close monitoring. Despite this method having a merit, it was noted to be biased since it only targeted specific patients and not the entire cohort. Multiple fall prevention strategies are the ultimate answer to fall prevention in the hospital whereby hourly rounding, use of bracelets and alarm system when combined shall provide the optimum result in minimising falls (Kalula et al., 2011).ReferenceBlakley, D.

, Kroth, M., & Gregson, J. (2011). The impact of nurse rounding on patient satisfaction in a medical-surgical hospital unit. Medsurg Nursing : Official Journal of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses, 20, 327–32.Hill, A.-M., Hoffmann, T., Beer, C., McPhail, S., Hill, K. D., Oliver, D., … Haines, T. P. (2011). Falls after discharge from hospital: is there a gap between older peoples’ knowledge about falls prevention strategies and the research evidence? The Gerontologist, 51, 653–62.

Hutchings, M., Ward, P., & Bloodworth, K. (2013). “Caring around the clock”: A new approach to intentional rounding. Nursing Management, 20, 24–30. Kalula, S. Z., Scott, V., Dowd, A., & Brodrick, K. (2011). Falls and fall prevention programmes in developing countries: Environmental scan for the adaptation of the Canadian Falls prevention curriculum for developing countries. Journal of Safety Research, 42, 461–472. Olrich, T., Kalman, M., & Nigolian, C. (2012). Hourly rounding: a replication study.

Medsurg Nursing : Official Journal of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses, 21, 23–6, 36.