Nursing is a unique, identifiable and autonomous profession with the right, duty, responsibility, and expertise to determine the scope and standards of nursing practice. Providing high-quality care to patients is a priority for professional nursing. Quality care is the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge. Quality improvement is designed to enhance patient care through the implementation of action plans to improve the quality, safety, and appropriateness of care rendered by the nursing staff (MA Nursing Core Competency Toolkit, 2016).
In September, there was a call sent to all McLean RNs to submit a quality improvement idea to be entered into a drawing for a day pass with pay to the 30th Annual American Psychiatric Nurses Association Conference, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: Inspiring Leadership Every Day October 19-22, 2016 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Winners of the drawing were Ryan Stevens, Mark Haigh, and Jim Quackenbush.
The nurse directors were asked to rate the quality improvement ideas. The quality improvement project idea with the most votes was submitted by Elizabeth Murray from McLean SouthEast, “Crash course in coping/grounding/distraction tools to be done in orientation and at the year review with CPR/CPI for MHSs and RNs. We do a lot of talking about these skills but I have not attended a specific training on how to assist our patients with coping/grounding/distraction tools.”
A team, including Abbie Rice, Jim Quackenbush, Ginybel Belgira, Todd Snyder, and Ryan Stevens was formed to begin creating educational modules for staff interested in learning about grounding techniques. After doing some research, the team has identified a gap in the literature. There is little evidence explaining the benefits of grounding techniques and there remains no clear definition. To assist with this creative process, the team has adopted the theoretical principals of Green Care which are connectedness, contact with nature, benefits of exercise, and occupation/work as therapeutic (Cutcliffe and Travale, 2016).
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