Journey to excellence: Transforming the care delivery process through service excellence training and standards of professionalism

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Bridgett Byrd Sellars

Winston-Salem State University, USA

: J Nurs Patient Care

Abstract

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Strong patient satisfaction begins with a healthy work environment that engages staff and provides quality patient care. A rural community hospital engaged on a ‘Journey to Excellence’ that included implementation of service excellence standards to improve patient outcomes. These standards included hardwiring hourly rounding, implementing director rounding, conducting service excellence training for all employees, and standardizing uniform dress code colors based on discipline. The changes resulted in improved community perception of professional image of nursing, improved patient satisfaction, and decreased wait times for call bell responses. Hourly rounding compliance was self-reported through documentation by the staff, and was measured by leadership interviews with patients and families during daily rounding. Service excellence training, including ‘No Passing Zone’ training; to ensure all team members were educated about patient care standards and expectations. The community perception was measured through qualitative feedback from board meeting members and the Patient Family Advisory Council. They reported that nurses were perceived as being more professional, and it was easier to identify who the nurse was. These measures helped to validate improvement in the patient experience, and better-quality care.

Biography

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Bridgett Byrd Sellars, PhD, RN, FACHE, NE-BC is currently the Director of RN to BSN Program and Associate Professor at Winston-Salem State University in the Division of Nursing. Her research program focuses on Transformational Leadership Practices and Patient Outcomes. Her most recent work in a prior role as the Chief Nursing Officer at a Community Hospital was implementing nursing excellence standards to improve patient outcomes.