Culturally Diverse Discharge Planning and Education

Readmission rates have been increasing over the past several years; therefore, the Affordable Care Act has required Social Security to create a program known as the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). The main objective of the HRRP is for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reduce reimbursement to hospitals with excessive readmission rates. Extensive research has revealed several factors that are contributing to an increase in readmission rates and poor patient outcomes; one is a gap in communication and lack of cultural competency in nursing care. Another contribution to this phenomenon is poorly managed transitions of patients with chronic diseases from the hospital into the community due to inadequate discharge planning. Therefore, the aim of this project will be to encourage nursing faculty to develop curriculum for culturally diverse discharge planning and education for all levels of nursing courses, with the goal being to contribute to improved patient outcomes and decreased readmission rates among the various cultures. Utilizing Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care and Universality as a model, a conceptual framework Culturally Diverse Discharge Planning and Education was created to assist in developing a curriculum to increase awareness and foster student nurse critical thinking skills of the discharge planning and education process. Instructors of various local Registered Nursing programs will be invited to participate in a “train the trainer” type presentation of curriculum to introduce cultural diversity for discharge planning and education into the classroom, which will be developed and delivered by using Power Point, case studies, student collaboration, and role play. Instructors will be asked at the end of the presentation to provide their opinions of the value of this curriculum and the chance they will incorporate cultural discharge planning and education into their curriculum.