Knowledge Bank

Centralization of Clinical Nurse Educators (CNEs) from the Med-Surg and Critical Care units of a Midwestern health care system created role confusion and poor role outcomes. This evidence-based quality improvement (EBPQI) project focused on the implementation of best practice education strategies integrating the Association of Nursing Professional Development (ANPD, 2016) Transition to Practice Fellowship© and their Practice Model© for six CNEs. The purpose was to discern the effect of such strategies on CNE self-assessed competency and three nurse sensitive quality outcomes. Evaluation of the EBPQI project included paired self-assessments via a pre- and post-intervention survey. Additional project outcomes included fall rates, number of indwelling urinary catheter days, and CNE turnover rates. The self-assessed competency results revealed a post-intervention increased aggregate mean score indicating improvement in self-assessed competency despite the lack of statistical significance. The fall rates results were statistically significant and supported the relationship between the project intervention and a reduction in fall rates. The indwelling urinary catheter days results revealed a statistically significant relationship between the intervention and an increase in the number of days for indwelling catheters thus failing to produce an improvement. Significant confounding factors from the Covid-19 pandemic were present. Lastly, CNE turnover results showed a reduction by approximately one-third. This project supported CNEs do influence patient quality outcomes and their own self-assessed competency in the CNE role when the NPD specialty principles are integrated. Future recommendations include similar investigations for the growth of the NPD specialty practice and for the advancement of optimal patient outcomes.