Date of Graduation

Fall 12-15-2023

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Program

MSN project

First Advisor

Lisa Brozda RN, MSN, CNS

Second Advisor

Nicole Beamish, DNP, APRN, PHN, CNL

Abstract

Problem: This Quality Improvement (QI) project aims to improve preeclampsia education among nurses and reduce the frequency of preeclampsia assessments among patients(without severe features) (SF) in the Mother-Baby postpartum unit at Hospital A. Nurses often stated that patients are unable to have uninterrupted rest periods with frequent assessments, which research shows is necessary for reducing patient blood pressure.

Context: The QI project is implemented in a 25-bed postpartum unit that cares for women and their newborns in the postpartum period. The unit’s nurse educator and nurse manager requested that the visiting University of San Francisco research group focus on simplifying the preeclampsia assessment along with providing refresher education on preeclampsia signs and symptoms.

Interventions: Distribute brief questionnaires to registered nurses on the postpartum unit to determine the most beneficial information nurses need on preeclampsia signs and symptoms and recommendations for frequency of assessment. No intervention was implemented at this time.

Measures: The improvement process began with a microsystem assessment using the 5Ps (see Appendix C) and distributing questionnaires (see Appendix G) that assisted us in assessing the comfort level of nurses. Edible incentives were provided to encourage active participation in the change process.

Results: Our results were a combination of both qualitative and quantitative data. The response rates of the pre-assessment survey gave insight into the nurses’ opinions (see Appendix H), and the goal and direction of the QI project that would be most beneficial to the postpartum unit. The pre-assessment survey stated that refresher courses would be beneficial to 69.3% of nurses. Barriers to the QI included a lack of time for staff to complete surveys, and/or hesitation to complete the survey.

Conclusion: Although the overall comfort level on the topic of preeclampsia was high, having more frequent refresher training courses was highly requested on the pre-assessment survey. Furthermore, after education was provided, quantitative and qualitative data from nurses on the postpartum unit showed an increase in preeclampsia education and satisfaction with assessment frequency among nurses.

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