University of Pittsburgh Researchers Receive Grant to Improve Patient Communication and Outcomes in the ICU
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 19, 2009 – University of Pittsburgh researchers will lead one of five U.S. teams that were awarded grants to understand how nurses contribute to and improve the quality of patient care. Through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) program, Pitt researchers will focus on improving patient care outcomes in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Co-principal investigators Mary Beth Happ, Ph.D., R.N., professor, Pitt School of Nursing, and Amber Barnato, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor, Pitt School of Medicine and Pitt Graduate School of Public Health, will lead the two-year, nearly $300,000 project, “Study of Patient-Nurse Effectiveness with Assisted Communication Strategies” (SPEACS-2).
“Each year, more than 2.7 million ICU patients are temporarily unable to speak due to breathing tubes and artificial respiration. These patients face additional communication challenges such as hearing loss, impaired vision and confusion during hospitalization in the ICU,” Dr. Happ said. “Researchers on the SPEACS-2 team will strive to improve the patient’s ICU experience by learning to more accurately interpret the patients’ messages about their symptoms, as well as their care needs.”
Drs. Happ and Barnato’s team of nurses, physicians, speech-language pathologists and biostatisticians will examine the impact of a Web-based nurse communication training program on patient care outcomes.
“We know these tools improve communication. The obvious next question is whether improved communication measurably improves patient outcomes and reduces costs,” Dr. Barnato said. “It would be very exciting if a low-tech tool in the ICU can improve critical care nursing care, patient outcomes and efficiency.”
This is the fourth round of INQRI grants since the program’s inception in 2005. The program was developed to support interdisciplinary teams of nurse scholars and scholars from other disciplines to address the gaps in knowledge about the relationship between nursing and health care quality.
INQRI is nationally led by Mary Naylor, Ph.D, R.N., and Mark Pauly, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, in partnership with Lori Melichar, Ph.D., of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
For more information, visit www.inqri.org.