Discharge Readiness Scales Found to Improve Readmission Rates when Used with Nurse Assessments
During her tenure at Marquette, Dr. Marianne Weiss developed the Readiness for Discharge Scale to measure relevant aspects of a patient’s readiness to transition from hospital to home. In early 2019 a JAMA Network Open-published study of clinical use of the scale found that when nurses used a structured questionnaire to obtain information directly from the patient about their readiness for discharge and used that patient’s perspective in conjunction with the nurse’s own independent assessment for discharge, there were fewer readmissions among patients hospitalized on units with a high overall readmission rate.
“What nurses told us in focus groups was that adding the structured discharge readiness assessments to their unit’s usual discharge procedures helped them to be more aware of patients’ needs related to discharge earlier in the hospitalization,” says Weiss, now a professor emerita. In most cases, discharge readiness assessment was not a typical practice and was conducted informally, if at all.
Over the years, Weiss and her research team have refined and rigorously tested the Readiness for Discharge Scale and other scales, resulting in the development of shorter versions that are more amenable for clinical nursing practice. While initially designed as research instruments, a number of hospitals are now including the Readiness for Discharge Scale in their electronic health record, and it has been translated into 13 languages. Clinicians and researchers worldwide can now access these scales on our Marquette University College of Nursing website.
“Our research on nurse assessment of discharge readiness has resulted in major changes in the way nurses perform discharge preparation,” Weiss adds. “We learned in our research that it is the skills of nurses in discharge teaching that is the most significant predictor of discharge readiness.”
