The Impact of Education in Small Groups on Direct Patient Care as Documented in Pain Assessments

Meyers, Kathy J.

Monday, 18 November 2013

Kathy J. Meyers, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC
College of Nursing and Health, Madonna University, Livonia, MI

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to describe the advantages of educating staff in a small group setting on direct patient outcomes.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to discuss final outcomes and viability of small groups as a learning strategy for long-term change.

This presentation discusses the effects of nursing education in small group settings on direct patient care as evidenced in the documentation of pain assessments. The opportunity for education was discovered after 45 chart reviews were found to have pain assessments either lacking completely or ineffectively addressed. This was further compounded by a staff survey which confirmed the lack of correlation between perceived self-assessment data and actual chart documentation. Small groups were chosen as the setting for the education due to a request from the staff for a more personalized opportunity to learn. Education strategies included the use of power point, a case study and interactive learning with question/answers, utilizing actual chart information. Afterwards, chart audits were again utilized to assess any changes that occurred in nursing practice. Three months later, a follow up survey was completed to assess the nurse’s perception of the education they had received. Prior to education, the percentage of charts without assessment documentation was 35%, which decreased to 1% afterwards. Three months after the small groups, 94% of staff stated that they felt this educational opportunity had changed their nursing practice. Using group learning provided the opportunity to share ideas and express opinions which led to an overall change in direct patient care. The use of small groups for educational opportunities, instead of large group lectures, should be considered a viable option to enhance learning.

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