Implementation of Recovery Education on an Inpatient Psychiatric Unit

INTRODUCTION: There is a national agenda in the United States for the establishment and implementation of an evidence-based recovery model of care in patients with psychiatric illness. Recovery principles include self-direction, individualization/patient-centered, empowerment, holistic, nonlinear, strengths-based, peer support, respect, responsibility, and hope. Recovery education has shown to improve patients’ quality of life, decrease readmission rates, and increase nursing knowledge of the recovery process in acute psychiatric care settings. Providers, patients, and governmental agencies have supported this agenda to assist psychiatric patients to remain in the community, reduce readmission rates, and improve health outcomes. AIMS: This quality improvement project aims to reduce 30-day readmissions, assess recovery knowledge of nurses, and evaluate patients’ perceived quality of life. METHOD: The quality improvement project featured a pre-post survey design with a convenience sample of nurses and patients across acute two adult inpatient units. Nurses facilitated recovery groups. Comparisons were made pre/post implementation on nursing knowledge and readmission rates. Evaluation of patients’ perceived quality of life was made postimplementation. RESULTS: Readmission was 5% in the recovery group. Nurse recovery knowledge increased (M = 2.97, SD = 0.35; M = 3.40, SD = 0.21). Significant correlations were noted with patients’ quality of life measures and patient demographic data (p <.05). CONCLUSIONS: Recovery education provided the opportunity for nurses to gain knowledge and for psychiatrically ill patients to obtain patient-centered care that guided the recovery process, improved their quality of life, and decreased readmission within 30 days of discharge.