How to develop an innovative nursing practice culture, when working in a hospital setting with a battlefield of competing rationales

12^th Nursing and Healthcare Congress

October 03-05, 2016 Vancouver, Canada

Mette Kjerholt

Roskilde Hospital, Denmark

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

In my PhD project I investigated how health care professionals communicated about older chronically ill patients in and across sectors according to secure continuity and the patients� own perspective in the trajectories. The research design was action research and research methods were field studies. The results showed that the participants were aware of how to ensure continuity and integration of the patients� own perspective, but they rarely pursued them in practice. Overall hindering factors were organizational values and lack of time. They felt caught in a value conflict between nursing professional values and system value, which caused a feeling of powerlessness and maintaining status quo in their practice. After dissemination of my PhD, I was employed as post.doc in a department of hematology, and due to the results of my PhD project, me and the head nurse wanted to develop an innovative person-centered nursing practice culture, where the staff felt empowered to develop and change their practice according to nursing professional values. A participatory approach to developing clinical practice was chosen, as it is collaborative, contributes to personal and organizational development and advances professional practice knowledge. After 4 years we can document, that the participatory approach has increased the quality of patient care, the patient satisfaction and the nurse�s satisfaction in the department. The approach has furthermore positively changed the nurse�s mindset towards a feeling of empowerment and influence of their clinical practice.

Biography :

Mette Kjerholt was trained as RN in 1984 and has a Diploma in leadership in health care, a Master degree in Learning and changing processes and in Nursing Science and obtained her PhD degree in Health Science from University of Southern Denmark in 2011. She was employed as clinical nurse specialist Post-doc in Department of Hematology, Roskilde hospital. In January 2015, she became Research leader of Unit of Nursing Research, and clinical nurse specialist in the department.

Email: metkj@regionsjaelland.dk