Sharing expertise—Using clinical nursing rounds to improve UK emergency nursing practice

Summary 

Background

There has been a re-emergence of nursing rounds in a number of areas of UK practice in recent years to address a variety of issues from patient comfort to multi-disciplinary working. This article reports on the development and evaluation of an ongoing project aimed at promoting good practice and providing opportunity for feedback between senior nurses and staff in the emergency department—the ‘clinical nursing round’.

Aims

The primary aim of the evaluation was to ascertain the impact of participation in a clinical nursing round on nurses’ individual practice. Additional aims were to categorise identified learning needs to inform the development of teaching activity within the department, and to inform development of the clinical nursing rounds.

Methods

This was a service evaluation study using both survey questionnaires and the retrospective analysis of record sheets kept during the clinical nursing rounds. Participants in the survey questionnaire were those nurses who had taken part in a nursing round.

Results

Survey results show that the clinical nursing rounds have had a positive impact on participants practice, with 83% (n=20) changing their practice as a direct result. The skills of the facilitators were deemed appropriate and participants felt supported.

Conclusions

The introduction of clinical nursing rounds has provided an innovative strategy which supports an environment for mutual learning and a means to share the expertise of senior nurses with colleagues. Despite the relatively small number of survey participants, this evaluation supports the use of nursing rounds to improve nursing practice within the emergency department.

Keywords: Emergency nursing, Clinical leadership, Emergency education, Consultant nurse