One benefit of acuity-adaptable patient rooms may be increased job satisfaction for nurses. Further, making nurses happier at their jobs could keep them in the workforce longer. This article examines this patient care model from the perspective of renal transplant nurses.
This study sought to explore the experiences of transplant nurses caring for renal transplant patients in acuity-adaptable patient rooms and gain insights toward improving the room.
The researchers used descriptive phenomenology, which is the lived experience with a goal of looking at commonalities in the description of the phenomenon from the participant’s perspective.
This study was conducted in a 1,500-bed, twice magnet-redesignated, tertiary hospital in the Houston area. This hospital has a 30-bed, multiorgan transplant unit and 14 acuity-adaptable patient rooms.
The investigators used purposeful sampling to recruit and interview 10 RNs for the study.
They used the following interview questions:
1. Tell me about your experiences in caring for a patient in an acuity-adaptable room.
- How do you think you care for patients differently in an acuity-adaptable room than in a traditional room?
- What do you like about it?
- What do you not like?
- Tell me about how you use the technology that is available in acuity-adaptable rooms.
2. What would you change about the room design?
3. What do you think the future holds for the acuity-adaptable patient room?
4. Tell me in as much detail as possible about how you cared for your last renal transplant patient using an acuity-adaptable room.
The study used Colaizzi’s method of data analysis.
The researchers found three theme clusters: the acuity-adaptable room provides comfort to both patient and family, nurse empowerment, and acuity adaptable has future potential.
One limitation of the study was the purposive sampling, so caution is recommendation in using the study’s findings. They cannot be generalized to a wider population of nurses.