Aim: To describe clinical nurses' experiences with practice change associated with participation in a multi-site nursing translational research study implementing new protocols for hospital discharge readiness assessment.
Background: Nurses' participation in translational research studies provides an opportunity to evaluate how implementation of new nursing interventions affects care processes within a local context. These insights can provide information that leads to successful adoption and sustainability of the intervention.
Methods: Semi-structured focus groups from 30 of 33 participating study hospitals lead by team nurse researchers.
Results: Nurses reported improved and earlier awareness of patients' discharge needs, changes in discharge practices, greater patient/family involvement in discharge, synergy and enhanced discharge processes, and implementation challenges. Participating nurses related the benefits of participation in nursing research.
Conclusion: Participation in a unit-level translational research project was a successful strategy for engaging nurses in practice change to improve hospital discharge.
Implications for nursing management: Leading unit-based implementation of a structured discharge readiness assessment including nurse assessment and patient self-assessment encourages earlier awareness of patients' discharge needs, improved patient assessment and greater patient/family involvement in discharge preparation. Integrating discharge readiness assessments into existing discharge care promotes communication between health team members that facilitates a timely, coordinated discharge.
Keywords: discharge assessment; hospital discharge; practice change; translational research.
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