A Nurse Communication Manager reduces the number of non-relevant contacts

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to reduce interruptions in nursing practice by exploring the effects on the number of  nonrelevant contacts received by the nursing staff after implementation of a Nurse Communication Manager.

Design: The study was designed as a pre/post interventional study. All contacts to the nursing staff, either by telephone or in person, were registered 14 days before intervention and 14 days after intervention.

Setting: The study was set in a department of surgery.

Subjects: The subjects were contacts either in person or by telephone aimed at nurses and nurse assistants in the surgical department.

Interventions: During the daytime a Nurse Communication Manager handled all incoming contacts irrespective of whether they were in person or by telephone. When the Nurse Communication Manager was not available and during the evening, night and weekends, telephone contacts were managed by an electronic Call Centre guiding the call to the care teams.

Main outcome measure(s): The main outcome measures were the number of non-relevant contacts aimed at the nursing staff.

Results: Results showed a significant reduction in non-relevant contacts to the nursing staff from a mean of 80 contacts per day (SD 43) to a mean of 18 contacts per day (SD 7), p<0.01.

Conclusion: Implementation of a Nurse Communication Manager (NCM) reduced the number of non-relevant contacts. Reduction of non-relevant contacts is important for nurses in the clinical setting as non-relevant contacts may be perceived as interruptive. When nurses do not have to spend time responding to non-relevant contacts, they have more time to perform direct patient care.