Moving into a new hospital is an exciting time, but it is also a significant undertaking. In April 2016, an academic medical center in the southern United States opened a new hospital on campus. This opening included moving 191 adult patients from 15 patient care units from the “old” hospital to the “new” hospital (Comeau, Armendariz-Batiste, & Baer, 2017).
During the two-year construction, there were numerous preparatory activities. One of the priorities was the education of staff. There is a general paucity of published literature on the subject. There are few publications containing detailed information on the education of nurses to prepare for moving to a new facility, and on the perceptions and feedback of nurses after the move. In one qualitative study to identify challenges perceived by staff when relocating to a new intensive care unit, study participants suggested multiple strategies that may assist with relocation. One of their recommendations was an education plan that included orientation and simulation (Lin, Foster, Chaboyer, & Marshall, 2016). One study evaluated the use of a virtual environment versus paper floor plans to prepare nurses for wayfinding in a new hospital. Study findings demonstrated no difference in performance or nurses’s confidence between the 2 methods (Halfer and Rosenheck, 2014). In anticipation of their move to a new hospital tower, Knippa and Senecal (2017) used simulation “day in the life” scenarios to prepare ICU staff for patient care in their new facility. Pre/post surveys evaluating the effectiveness indicated an improvement in perceived confidence and readiness. Education of staff to prepare for a move can also be time consuming. For a new non-replacement hospital in Florida, six weeks of structured education was provided (Harris & Cohn, 2014).
Description:
A learning needs assessment is foundational to the educational process. It can be formal or informal. The target audience is a key consideration; in our case it included nursing and non-licensed staff who worked for nursing service and would be moving to the new hospital. Data for a needs assessment is also ideally obtained from a variety of sources (Gorbunoff & Kummeth, 2014). Information for our needs assessment was obtained from many sources. These included nurses who worked with the construction team, regulatory requirements, and feedback from other newly opened facilities.
The education of clinicians was facilitated using a multi-strategic approach. This included internal communication, staff meetings, equipment training, a self-paced workbook with workflow exercises, and electronic resources. Internal communication was accomplished via electronic and meeting formats. Staff meetings were also an important venue for dissemination of information. The process for equipment training was very comprehensive due to the volume of new purchases for the new facility. An innovative self-paced workbook was developed for staff. This workbook contained a total of 45 exercises and were a combination of scavenger hunt activities as well as workflow practice. Electronic resources were also used and made available, including demonstration videos, instruction manuals, and quick reference sheets.
Evaluation:
Between weeks 8 to 12 after the move, staff were surveyed about their perceptions regarding their educational preparation to move to the new hospital. A total of 126 responses were received from the survey, for a response rate of 28.9%. Clinicians were asked to rank the strategies used. They were also invited to free text comments; these were mixed with both positive comments and opportunities for improvement. The results of the survey were not only insightful, but they were very beneficial to guide subsequent plans for additional training.
Implications:
New hospital construction is growing rapidly. Nurses working in hospitals locally, regionally, and worldwide, can share innovative and practical strategies for the professional development of staff moving to a new hospital. Finally, this project is congruent with the conference theme Innovating Healthy Clinical and Academic Environments: Optimizing Patient Outcomes and Professional Well-Being.