ENHANCING THE NURSE-PATIENT COMMUNICATION AND PATIENT SATISFACTION

Interventions to enhance a trusting patient-nurse relationship are paramount to improving patient satisfaction. Communicating effectively and understanding the patient’s perspective has lowered patients’ anxiety and increased patients’ sense of control and confidence regarding their health status. Purpose: Enhance The HOPE Experience Program by incorporating the Commit to Sit component and assessing its impact on patient satisfaction. The aims were to: a) increase nurses’ knowledge and skills on the elements of the Commit to Sit; b) increase the number of nurses who implement Commit to Sit strategy; and c) evaluate patient satisfaction using the CAHPS Top Box Scores for nursing communication. Methods: Forty registered nurses in a 33-bed oncology unit received educational intervention between September and October 2023. A pre-post-test design was utilized to measure changes in knowledge, practice, and patient satisfaction using a survey, observations audits, and CAHPS Top Box Scores. Intellectus Statistics software was used to analyze pre-and post-data using paired and independent samples t-test with a significant level set at P<.005. Results: Over 50% of eligible nurses participated. The educational intervention significantly improved nurses’ knowledge (p<.001) and skills (p=.001); but not patient satisfaction. Discussion: Implementation of Commit to Sit was possible. Barriers identified to sitting during patient interactions were insufficient chairs, possibly due to inconsistent patient room sizes. Conclusion: Ongoing education and observations of The HOPE Experience program and Commit to Sit strategies are vital to hardwiring them into practice.