Date of Conferral

2-6-2026

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Melanie Braswell

Abstract

Inconsistent discharge practices among medical-surgical nurses contribute to communication gaps, patient confusion, and preventable adverse outcomes following hospital discharge. Nurses, as frontline providers of discharge education, play a critical role in ensuring safe and effective transitions of care. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project addressed a practice gap in nurses’ knowledge of implementing a structured discharge checklist. The purpose of this staff education project was to evaluate whether a structured discharge checklist education program would improve medical-surgical nurses’ knowledge of standardized discharge education practices. A pretest–posttest design was used to assess changes in knowledge among 36 medical-surgical nurses. Participants completed a 20-item multiple-choice knowledge assessment before and after a standardized education intervention focused on key discharge components, including medication education, symptom monitoring, escalation guidance, follow-up planning, and use of the teach-back method. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted to evaluate outcomes. Pretest results demonstrated moderate baseline knowledge, with a mean score of 10/20 (50%). Following the intervention, posttest scores increased to a mean of 17.25/20 (87.5%), reflecting a 37.5% improvement in knowledge. A paired-samples t test confirmed the increase was statistically significant, t(35) = 67.01, p < .001. Findings indicate that structured, evidence-based staff education significantly improves nurses’ knowledge of standardized discharge checklist implementation and reduces variability in discharge education practices. This project supports the use of structured discharge checklist education as an effective, scalable strategy to enhance nursing knowledge, promote consistent discharge processes, improve patient safety, and support equitable delivery of discharge education across diverse patient populations.

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