An Initiative to Increase Nurse Knowledge and Decrease Postpartum Readmissions for Preeclampsia

Objective: To increase nurses' knowledge using innovative education and to improve maternal outcomes by reducing postpartum readmission rates of women with preeclampsia.

Design: Quality improvement project implementing escape room-style education for nurses.

Setting/local problem: A large tertiary hospital in southeastern Michigan with initial postpartum readmission rates of women with preeclampsia exceeding national averages.

Participants: Registered nurses (n = 71) working on the hospital postpartum unit; 70 completed the project.

Intervention/measurements: Participants completed a knowledge survey on the care and management of women in the postpartum period with preeclampsia and then engaged in an escape room game scenario involving an increasingly acute case of a woman with preeclampsia. Debriefing occurred after the education, and then participants completed the same survey. Using data collected after the project, we compared postpartum readmission rates of women with preeclampsia to the median national average of 3.55%.

Results: Nurse knowledge increased by 10.5% from the pre- to posttest period. For the 2-month project time period, the average readmission rate was 1.49%.

Conclusion: Offering innovative, interactive education to nurses, such as an escape room game, appeared to be an effective method to increase nurses' knowledge and may have improved maternal outcomes, as demonstrated through a readmission rate lower than the median national average. Further projects using longer time periods are needed to understand the true impact of the education on readmission rates.