Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/763161
18 Executive Briefing How it's Done It starts with the writing core. Experienced pharmacists, some of whom still practice, write the content and edit the monthly Nurse's Letter. These pharmacists all have doctoral degrees and 10 years of hospital experience on average. The lead editor pharmacist has more than 20 years of experience. With an experienced team in place, TRC then relies on a rigor- ous, evidence-based, multi-step editorial process. To make sure Nurse's Letter covers topics important to nurses, TRC determines the "big questions" every month. These big questions are pivotal to TRC's editorial process and are one differentiator from current nurse resources. It's through the big questions that editors succinctly answer the common questions healthcare providers not only encounter, but need to know in their daily practice. To identify these big questions that nurses both need and want to know, the TRC staff scours journals, blogs and government statements and also monitors the lay press. Subscribers also write or call with medication therapy questions, according to Dr. Boehringer. These efforts result in TRC's editors accumulating more than 1,500 big questions each month. To narrow these big questions down to the most critical, TRC hosts a monthly webinar with its editors as well as healthcare providers from various disciplines to identify the most relevant, practical and timely topics. Then, editors research the topics that have resulted from the big questions and build evidence-based recommendations around them. They do this by evaluating significant research from journals and communicating directly with national guide- line authors, specialists and government agencies like the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. Finally, they draft the content and distill it down to just the most pertinent points. Each article — which can be read in five min- utes or less and average less than 30 lines of text — features five or six medication therapy recommendations and suggested resources to find more information. Additionally, each recommendation is vetted through a six-step review process by specialists and front-line clinicians. "We refine each sentence and word to make sure it's as clear as can be, 100 percent evidence-based and practical," says Dr. Boehringer. Benefits in Today's Environment Studies have linked the introduction of educational medication tools in healthcare organizations to decreased hospitalization rates and readmissions. An ACO in Kentucky and Indiana with 50 physicians and 12,000 Medicare patients implemented TRC's Prescriber's Letter — a tool similar to Nurse's Letter but aimed at prescribers — and saw a 26 percent decrease in pa- tient hospitalization across all disease states, a 24 percent rela- tive drop in discharges and a 7 percent drop in 30-day hospital readmissions after a seven-month period. Based on these results, it stands to reason that equipping nurses specifically with an electronic medication learning resource with unbiased, succinct, well-researched content may have many positive outcomes for the hospital and the nurses themselves in today's healthcare environment. There is a growing number of retiring nurses in the U.S., espe- cially among baby boomer nurses who are leaving the profes- sion at increasing rates. One 2016 survey from AMN Health- care showed 62 percent of registered nurses over age 54 are considering retiring in the next three years. Hospitals are hiring younger nurses to fill the vacancies left by retiring nurses; however, those younger nurses have less experience than their older coworkers when it comes to earning practical experience in medication management. "I think there is a gap between what nurses learn about phar- macology and theory in school and being able to apply it in a real situation," Dr. Kenny says. An electronic resource can especially "help young nurses in transition," she adds. However, nurses of all ages can benefit from a current, un- biased medication learning resource like Nurse's Letter, as new medications are continually released. "I think nurses like reading it because we tackle the problems they encounter in day-to-day practice in a manner that's easy to digest," says Dr. Boehringer. It can also serve to elevate the nursing profession as a whole, according to Dr. Kenny. "This is a source truly dedicated to the professional practice of nursing," she explains. "So many items in a hospital are there for the infection control team, or the quality measures team, or physicians. Nurse's Letter is unique to nurses… Having a resource dedicated to nurses really elevates the presence of nursing." Tools such as the Nurse's Letter empower nurses to provide the best care possible and elevate their presence in the hospital. These resources also have far-reaching implications for hos- pitals' bottom line in value-based care models, since medica- tion management can positively affect so many metrics, like readmission rates, medication errors and medication-related adverse events and patient experience scores. "Hospital leaders like Nurse's Letter because it provides nurses strategies to improve patient care and outcomes," she says. "It's helping them meet their hospital goals." n TRC is the leading provider of digital medication learning that updates, informs, and educates healthcare providers across the continuum of care. Trusted by over 85% of pharmacists, for more than 30 years TRC has been providing concise, unbiased, timely information that medical professionals need to help improve medication use, prevent medication errors, and improve overall patient care, quality, and outcomes. In addition to Nurse's Letter, TRC provides the on-line resources Pharmacist's Letter, Pharmacy Technician's Letter, Prescriber's Letter, and Natural Medicines.