SPEACS-2 initiative recognized as Edge Runner by American Academy of Nursing
The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) this week named the SPEACS-2 patient-provider communication training and toolkit program as a 2023 “Edge Runner,” recognizing the initiative as an evidence-based, nurse-designed model that demonstrates significant clinical, financial, community and policy outcomes with proven sustainability and replicability. The Ohio State University College of Nursing’s Mary Beth Happ, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA, distinguished professor of critical care research, and Judith Tate, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATS-F, associate professor and director of the college’s undergraduate honors program, lead the initiative.
The Study of Patient-Nurse Effectiveness with Assisted Communication Strategies (SPEACS-2) program came from a series of research studies that sought to improve communication with patients in intensive care units who are unable to speak because an artificial airway is in place. Many of these patients may also need mechanical ventilation and sedatives that make communication more difficult.
Developed and tested with grants from the NIH/National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the SPEACS-2 program is based on the value that all patients have the right to communicate with providers to the fullest extent possible. Happ, Tate and their team developed an online course, a clinical decision pathway for communication strategies, downloadable communication tools and a list of communication supplies to help patients and providers understand each other and reduce patient anxiety, frustration and sedation exposure.
Nurses participating in the program have reported significant increases in knowledge, satisfaction and comfort in communicating with mechanically ventilated patients, and the program has shown improvements in patient participation in care and time efficiency in assessing patients.
“This honor from AAN is the culmination of more than 20 years of interdisciplinary, practice-based research to help patients communicate with the clinicians who care for them,” said Happ. “We know that the investment in this work has helped thousands of nurses, patients and family members to understand each other in a stressful situation and improved the quality and safety of care in those instances. It is the most fulfilling work of my career, and we hope the AAN Edge Runner recognition will inspire others to implement the program. Our goal is for this approach to become standard of care.”
Other partners on the SPEACS-2 program include Kathryn Garrett, PhD, SLP-CCC, Alternative Communication Therapies, LLC; Rebecca Trotta, PhD, RN, director of nursing research and science at Penn Medicine; and Amber Barnato, MD, MPH, MS, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. The program will be honored at AAN’s Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. in October.
