Executive Summary: Staff Education Project

Ineffective communication in health care can lead to negative outcomes for patients, including medication errors; delayed or missed treatments; delayed or missed testing; poorer health outcomes, including death; and poor patient satisfaction. The project site, a hospital-based outpatient oncology clinic located in the Midwest, had an identified practice gap in the staff’s current perceptions of effective intradisciplinary communication. The purpose of this project was to develop, implement, and evaluate an education program on effective communication. The practice-focused question centered on whether health care staff demonstrated a change in their perceptions of effective intradisciplinary communication. Twelve registered nurses on staff voluntarily participated in the pre-education session. Data from the pre- and posttest questionnaires were analyzed using the normalized learning gain of averages following the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Learning Gain guidelines. The mean score from the pre-education surveys (M = 52.08) increased to a post-education mean score of 58.25, resulting in a 29.5% learning gain from the education provided. These findings indicate that providing staff education on effective communication in health care can increase their perception of intradisciplinary communication effectiveness. This project has the potential to improve communication among staff to create positive social change, increased equality and inclusion, and better patient outcomes. Increasing effective communication can also help organizations retain staff and prevent nurse burnout. Recommendations from this project include providing routine staff education programs across further settings and locations using larger samples.