Date of Conferral

11-18-2025

Date of Award

November 2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Dr. Cara Krulewitch

Abstract

This Doctor of Nursing Practice project focused on a staff education initiative to reduce 60-day readmission rates in a behavioral health unit within a hospital. The project was staff focused, emphasizing the provision of training to the nursing staff to effectively design the discharge planning of patients by actively involving them in the discharge plans. The purpose was to provide nurses with the necessary skills and knowledge to strengthen discharge planning and directly influence patient outcomes. Addressing the practice problem was an urgent need because patients in the behavioral health unit were at increased risk of readmission. The main factors identified for readmission included poor discharge planning, lack of patient education, and lack of read back after education to ensure proper understanding of the teaching. Constant readmission of patients increases healthcare costs and the workload for the nursing staff. The nurses are patient advocates and ensure that patients’ needs and wants are met. Acquiring new knowledge would enable the nurses to focus on the discharge planning and ensure the processes were duly followed by the patients. The guiding practice-focused question was: How could educating nurses on patient involvement in discharge planning reduce 60-day readmission rates? Following the educational intervention, the participants’ average number of correct responses increased from 18.1 (36%) on the pretest to 32.4 (64.8%) on the posttest, demonstrating an average improvement of 14.3 points (approximately 29%). Educating the nurses promotes positive change in terms of improving the quality of discharge education, and this initiative could ultimately reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions.

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