Charge Nurse Reflection

I participated in project red with the Charge Nurse to promote quality improvement. The patient was going to be discharged from the hospital that day and was hospitalized previously for pulmonary pneumonia. I entered the room and introduced myself after I donned on my isolation precaution gear. I proceeded and entered with her instructions and computer on wheels. As I spoked with her she seemed like she was lost then I asked if she was understanding, she said “I prefer in Spanish”. I than continued to read the instructions about how to prevent pneumonia and how to treat it to her while translating them in Spanish. After, we spoke I made sure the charge nurse provided her Spanish written instructions. I than turned on the computer and started

the video which was an English but she did state that she could understand. However, I still reinforced her teaching by asking her the same multiple-choice questions from the video to her in Spanish and she was able to answer them correctly. For example: When should I stop my antibiotics? A. when I feel better B. after a 2 days C. after 5 days D. after I am finished with the prescribed dosage. She proceeded by answering correctly (answer D) and I ended our conversation by asking if she had any questions.

The goal of Project RED (re-engineering discharge) is to increase quality improvement by preventing the patients from returning to the hospital within a certain time frame after being discharged. This project is an evidence based development. that assists hospitals in maintaining a high rate of decreased readmissions. According to the pubmed.com “one in 5 Medicare patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge each year, resulting in $17.5 billion in additional costs”. Therefore, some primary admissions such as COPD, ACS, HF, and pulmonary pneumonia fall under this category. This improves quality of care by educating the patient extensively throughout their care and before discharge. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) provides agencies with a “tool kit” that can assist hospitals in replicating and reengineering their discharge plans. Thus, including Identify the correct medicines and a plan for the patient to obtain them, reconcile the discharge plan with national guidelines, teach a written discharge plan the patient can understand and educate the patient about his or her diagnosis and medicines. These are only a few components in which in total are twelve. Therefore, the implementation of this project assists hospitals in preventing patient from being readmitted and maintain higher quality of care.