After the impressive results of our initial rest-focused pilot with Barnes-Jewish Hospital inpatient unit 5500, we received a multitude of inquiries from other hospital units across BJC hospitals asking if we could implement the same Rest is Best practices for their patients and staff. With all the interest, we decided to expand our pilot to five additional units to see what else we could learn and understand how this work could be translated to different units with patients with different medical needs.
Upon meeting with each individual unit, it quickly became apparent that some interventions we used with 5500 would need to be adapted to the new units. For instance, on the Plastic Surgery unit, nurses perform wound checks every four hours to ensure the patient is healing correctly. This causes disruption during the night, so nighttime interruptions will look different than in a General Medicine unit. Further, on the Mother & Baby unit, there are a number of additional types of “interruptions” to take into consideration, including diaper changes, feedings, peri care, and foley care.
The Rest is Best pilot has now expanded to five units: Mother & Baby at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, Surgery at Christian Hospital, and ENT/Plastic Surgery, Observation, and a Medicine unit at BJH. Interventions to enhance and promote sleep are planned throughout the year as we collect the necessary data to learn how we can best promote sleep throughout the BJC hospital community.
