Patient Safety in the Nursing Home: How Nursing Staff Assess and Communicate about Change in Condition
Authors: Scandrett Karen G. , Anichini Mary Ann , Berdes Celia , Estabrook Sherry , Boockvar Kenneth , Saliba Debra , Emanuel Linda , Taylor Stephanie L. 
Published: October 2012

How to Obtain Contact Hours by Reading This Article

Instructions

2.1 contact hours will be awarded for this activity. A contact hour is 60 minutes of instruction. This is a Learner-Paced Program. Vindico Medical Education does not require submission of quiz answers. A contact hour certificate will be awarded 4 to 6 weeks upon receipt of your completed Registration Form, including the Evaluation portion. To obtain contact hours:

1.
Read the article “Patient Safety in the Nursing Home: How Nursing Staff Assess and Communicate about Change in Condition” by Karen G. Scandrett, MD, MPH; Mary Ann Anichini, GNP-BC; Celia Berdes, PhD, MSPH; Sherry Estabrook; Kenneth Boockvar, MD, MS; Debra Saliba, MD, MPH; Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD; and Stephanie L. Taylor, PhD on pages 28–37, carefully noting the tables and other illustrative materials that are provided to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the content.

2.
Read each question and record your answers. After completing all questions, compare your answers to those provided at the end of the quiz.

3.
Type or print your full name, address, and date of birth in the spaces provided on the registration form.

4.
Indicate the total time spent on the activity (reading article and completing quiz). Forms and quizzes cannot be processed if this section is incomplete. All participants are required by the accreditation agency to attest to the time spent completing the activity.

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Forward the completed form with your check or money order for $20 made payable to JGN-CNE. All payments must be made in U.S. dollars and checks must be drawn on U.S. banks. CNE Registration Forms must be received no later than November 30, 2014.

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ournal of
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erontological
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ursing
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Activity Objectives

1.
Identify the conceptual framework upon which the study conducted by the authors was designed.

2.
Identify the group positioned at the center of the model of nursing home care adapted by the authors for their study.

3.
Discuss the goals of the study conducted by the authors.

4.
Discuss the major themes and findings of the study.

5.
Describe conclusions identified from the study.

Author Disclosure Statement
The authors disclose that they have no significant financial interests in any product or class of products discussed directly or indirectly in this activity. Dr. Scandrett, Ms. Estabrook, and Dr. Taylor disclose related grant funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Commercial Support Statement
All authors and planners have agreed that this activity will be free of commercial bias. There is no commercial support for this activity. There is no non-commercial support for this activity.

Nursing homes must improve quality of care even as it becomes increasingly complex, and patient safety science may provide a helpful paradigm. Training materials are needed to build staff capacity for clinical assessment and communication, thereby improving care processes. Designed to develop curricular materials, this study used focus groups to determine how experienced nurses and aides assess and communicate about resident clinical changes. Four focus groups were conducted, and interviews were analyzed for themes in an iterative process by multidisciplinary team members. Staff reported that consistent caregiving enables detection of subtle clinical changes; aides further noted the importance of affective bonding. Aides and nurses alike regarded all clinical changes as potentially significant, while nursing staff lacked a consistent approach to assessment. Using a patient safety framework, structural changes and process elements were identified as important topics for further training to support clinical communication and improve resident and facility outcomes.