The Last Word
Saving Lives
with Debra Cochran, RNIII, mother/baby unit at Grady Health; Michelle Stieffel, MSN, RN, director, mother baby and lactation services; and Michelle Roques, RN, charge nurse at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center
What’s the best way to convince nurses to consistently round on patients or make post-visit phone calls? Connect these tools to clinical quality. Studer Group coaches find that nurses who are initially resistant to new practices come to embrace these tools wholeheartedly when they see for themselves the value they bring. A few examples…
Post-Visit Phone Call Prevents a Stroke
“As soon as I began the post-visit phone call with the patient, she shared that ‘I am in so much pain! My head and back are killing me!’ She confirmed she had filled her prescriptions, but said the pain medication wasn’t helping at all…that the pain was so bad she couldn’t breastfeed or take care of her baby. I told her to hang up the phone and come immediately back to the hospital so the doctor could see her.
The next day while I was rounding, I recognized the name of the patient to whom I’d spoken. When I introduced myself, she said, ‘You know, you saved my life. If you hadn’t told me to come right away, I could have had a stroke or worse!’ I noticed then that she was on magnesium sulfate therapy. She said her blood pressure had been so high it was scary.
I felt overwhelmed with gratitude that she’d listened to me and followed my directions. Sometimes we don’t understand the benefit—or importance of things we do, until we see it firsthand.”
–Debra Cochran, RNIII, Mother/Baby Unit at Grady Health, Atlanta, GA
Nurse Leader Rounding Saves a Baby
“Michelle Roques was rounding on patients to validate nursing care on our mother/baby unit when she saw a mom holding her newborn. The baby was to be treated for hyperbilirubinemia, and was about to be placed on phototherapy on a bili-blanket that had been set up in the bassinet.
Michelle thought she faintly smelled smoke so she pulled the bili-blanket from the room to check it. She tagged it and put in a request for Biomed to check it as she determined the smoke smell was from the blanket unit.
The following day Biomed said they plugged it in for an hour and didn’t notice anything so they were returning it for use. I insisted he not return it until he did a complete check and took it apart to ensure it was safe. Two days later Biomed reported they ran it all night with no event but went ahead and removed the cover knowing I would not accept it back. When the biomed engineer removed the panel cover, the wires inside had melted together.
He told me it surely would’ve caught fire. I shudder to think about what could’ve happened if Michelle hadn’t rounded on that patient!”
–Michelle Stieffel, MSN, RN, Director, mother baby & lactation services at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center, New Orleans, LA
–Michelle Roques, RN, Charge Nurse performing Nurse Leader Rounding at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center, New Orleans, LA
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