Date of Award
Spring 3-26-2026
Document Type
Scholarly Project
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Department
Nursing
First Advisor
Dr. Hilary Morgan, PhD, CNM
Second Advisor
Dr. Daniel McGrath, DNP, RN, NEA-BC
Abstract
Practice Problem: Patient satisfaction is a key quality indicator that reflects patients’ perceptions of care and the healthcare system’s performance. Patient satisfaction scores at the project site were significantly lower than the national benchmark, particularly on the adult medical-surgical unit.
PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: In patients on an adult medical-surgical unit (P), how does the use of proactive patient rounding conducted by nurse leaders (I) versus current practices alone without such rounding (C) affect patient satisfaction scores over an eight-week period (T)?
Evidence: A literature review of multiple studies found that implementing daily nurse leader rounds increases patient satisfaction scores.
Intervention: Improving patient satisfaction scores by implementing a structured proactive rounding protocol conducted by nurse leaders over an eight-week period. Outcomes measured included rounding compliance and patient satisfaction scores.
Outcome: Rounding compliance averaged 36.8% during the eight-week implementation period. Although the project goal of 70% compliance was not achieved, patient satisfaction, measured via post-discharge surveys, improved from a baseline of 55% to 91.9%. A chi-square analysis revealed a statistically significant improvement in satisfaction scores (χ²(1) = 24.87, p < .001).
Conclusion: The proactive nurse leader rounding resulted in a significant improvement in patient satisfaction scores. These findings support proactive nurse leader rounding as an evidence-informed intervention that improves patient satisfaction and promotes quality outcomes in acute care environments, findings that are clinically significant.
Recommended Citation
Bogyah, L. A. (2026). Utilizing Proactive Rounding with Nursing Leadership to Improve Patient Satisfaction Scores in an Adult Medical-Surgical Unit. [Doctoral project, University of St Augustine for Health Sciences]. SOAR @ USA: Student Scholarly Projects Collection. https://doi.org/10.46409/sr.KFKG5312
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Nursing Administration Commons, Perioperative, Operating Room and Surgical Nursing Commons, Quality Improvement Commons
Comments
Scholarly project submitted to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice.