DEVELOPMENT OF A POST-DISCHARGE OUTREACH ENTERAL NUTRITION PROGRAM
Date
2023-12
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Abstract
Although enteral patients received pre-discharge teaching from Registered Dietitians (RDs), bedside nurses, or infusion providers, there was no thorough post-discharge follow-up related to patient understanding of the equipment used, nutrition orders, tube-feeding cares, ED visits, and rehospitalizations. The hospital’s local pharmacy and RDs from the clinic were only responding to patient-initiated questions on providing tube feeding supplies. Because of this lack of support, there were equipment failures, ED visits, and rehospitalizations in this patient population.
The intent of this project was to act strategically to help address problems during the transitional care pathway by implementing post-discharge follow-up calls to patients at two critical time points. The Project Lead’s objectives include developing and evaluating the surveys to garner information about potential complications, care gaps, and service failures. Verbal responses to open-ended and informational questions were aggregated to analyze complications, care gaps, and service failures. Furthermore, the follow-up allowed the respondents to freely share their needs and offered feedback about their patient care experience. The education learned from the patient was evaluated and shared with the organization. There was an improvement in patient understanding, self-monitoring, and navigation between the two survey timepoints.
This quality improvement project was designed to study the impact of a systematic process of patient follow-up gear to improve the outcomes of patients receiving enteral feedings.
Description
A capstone project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Nursing Practice
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