Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Project

College/School

College of Nursing

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Project Mentor

Dr. Mo-Kyung Sin

Readers

Christine McCarthy

Abstract

Background Hospitalized patients are at high risk for functional decline due to immobility. Despite the benefits of early mobility, consistent assessment and promotion of mobility remain challenging, partly due to low nursing confidence. The Bedside Mobility Assessment Tool (BMAT) has shown promise in addressing these issues. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the impact of BMAT education and unit-wide implementation on nursing staff confidence in assessing patient mobility among adult inpatients on an acute care unit at a level one trauma center in Seattle, Washington.

Methods This quality improvement project included BMAT education (a one-hour Zoom session on BMAT use and early mobility benefits, in-service huddles, flyers summarizing key points, and bedside signage to support clinical use) and surveys measuring nursing staff’s confidence in mobility assessment at pre-education, two weeks post-education, and one-month post-education. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests assessed changes in confidence. A subgroup analysis examined the relationship between years of experience and confidence in mobilizing unfamiliar patients.

Results Thirty-eight nurses completed the pre-education survey, 21 completed the two-week post-survey and 20 completed the one-month post-survey. The largest proportion of participants (34.2%) had two to three years of experience. Mean confidence level was increased by 14.7% at two weeks and 14.4% at one-month post-education. No relationship was found between years of experience and self-reported confidence.

Conclusion BMAT education had a practical impact in increasing nurses’ confidence level. Future studies should explore broader implementation to assess its effect on nursing confidence and mobility practices.

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