Evaluation of lay health workers on quality of care in the inpatient setting.

dc.contributor.author

Basnight, Ramona

dc.contributor.author

Berry, Peter

dc.contributor.author

Capes, Kellie

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Pearce, Sherri

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Thompson, Julie

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Allen, Deborah H

dc.contributor.author

Granger, Bradi B

dc.contributor.author

Reynolds, Staci S

dc.contributor.editor

Grosek, Stefan

dc.date.accessioned

2023-12-23T11:40:10Z

dc.date.available

2023-12-23T11:40:10Z

dc.date.issued

2023-01

dc.description.abstract

Aims

To evaluate the impact of a lay health worker support role in the inpatient setting.

Background

Healthcare systems are facing critical nursing and nurse assistant staffing shortages. These disciplines can be challenging to recruit and retain, leading healthcare leaders to identify innovative staffing models. Whereas lay health workers have been used in the community and low-income setting, there is scant evidence of their use in the inpatient setting. We implemented a lay health worker role, called Patient Attendant Service Aides (PASAs), on two medical/surgical units at a community hospital.

Methods

A pre/post-implementation design was used for this study. An online survey was provided to nurses, nursing assistants, and PASAs on the two medical/surgical units to assess their satisfaction and perceptions of the role. Nursing quality metrics, patient satisfaction, and nursing and nursing assistant turnover were evaluated before and after implementing the role.

Results

The online survey showed that nurses and nursing assistants felt that PASAs helped offload their workload, allowing them to focus on nursing-related tasks. PASAs felt supported by the team and believed they were making a meaningful contribution to the unit. There were slight improvements in patient satisfaction, although not significant. There was a significant improvement in nursing turnover on Unit A, from 71.1% to 21.6% (p = 0.009).

Conclusions

This is one of the first studies to evaluate the use of lay health workers in the inpatient setting; we found this role to be a feasible way to offload tasks from clinical staff. This role may serve as a pathway for workforce development, as several PASAs are now enrolled in nursing assistant training. Nurse managers may consider using lay health workers in the inpatient setting as they face severe clinical staff shortages.
dc.identifier

PONE-D-23-09485

dc.identifier.issn

1932-6203

dc.identifier.issn

1932-6203

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/29557

dc.language

eng

dc.publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

dc.relation.ispartof

PloS one

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10.1371/journal.pone.0293068

dc.rights.uri

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0

dc.subject

Humans

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Nursing Staff, Hospital

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Inpatients

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Personnel Staffing and Scheduling

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Workload

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Quality of Health Care

dc.subject

Workforce

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Health Workforce

dc.title

Evaluation of lay health workers on quality of care in the inpatient setting.

dc.type

Journal article

duke.contributor.orcid

Granger, Bradi B|0000-0003-0828-6851

duke.contributor.orcid

Reynolds, Staci S|0000-0002-0366-1328

pubs.begin-page

e0293068

pubs.issue

11

pubs.organisational-group

Duke

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School of Nursing

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Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

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Initiatives

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Duke Science & Society

pubs.organisational-group

Duke - Margolis Center For Health Policy

pubs.publication-status

Published

pubs.volume

18

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