Episode 318: Early Mobility for Hospitalized Patients

“We put into effect a program that supports guaranteed mobilization of every patient at least twice a day, which is such a huge change from where we were before, where patients were maybe getting out of bed just to go to the bathroom or maybe just to sit in the chair for one meal a day. So it really had a huge impact on overall mobility,” Jennifer Pouliot, MSN, RN, OCN^®, clinical program director of oncology safety and quality at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, NY, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS^®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about the benefits of mobility in hospitalized patients with cancer.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 

Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by June 28, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to patient mobility.

Episode Notes 

• Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. 
• Oncology Nursing Podcast episodes:
  • Episode 195: Exercise’s Effect on Patient and Provider Well-Being
  • Episode 82: Physical Activity Prescriptions in Cancer Care
  • Episode 15: Incorporating Physical Activity in Patient Care 
• 2024 ONS Congress^® session: Benefits of an Early Mobility Program for Hospitalized Patients (Presented by Jennifer Pouliot and Mark Liu)
• ONS Voice articles:
  • Does Dance/Movement Therapy Affect Outcomes for Pediatric Patients With Cancer?
  • During or After Chemo, Exercise Fights Fatigue and Supports Cancer Recovery
  • Exercise Program Improves Quality of Life in Patients With Breast Cancer—and Keeps Them Moving Daily
  • Exercise the Evidence: How I Moved From an Idea to Program Development
  • More Survivors Have Functional Limitations After Cancer
  • What the Evidence Says About Low-Intensity Exercise in Cancer Care
  • What the Evidence Says About Tai Chi in Cancer Care
• ONS courses:
  • Incorporating Physical Activity Into Cancer Care
  • Quality and Physical Activity Course Bundle
• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
  • Increased Mobility and Fall Reduction: An Interdisciplinary Approach on a Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Unit
  • Multimodal Exercise Program: A Pilot Randomized Trial for Patients With Lung Cancer Receiving Surgical Treatment
• ONS's Get Up, Get Moving resources
• American Physical Therapy Association’s Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care (AM-PAC)
• National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI)

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.

To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the Oncology Nursing Podcast^™ Library.

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

Highlights From This Episode

“Mount Sinai developed a mobility mission. And this mission included interdisciplinary approach. So that’s talking with the whole team about mobility, knowing the patient’s baseline, documenting and understanding the functional status and that it should not decline during hospitalization. Every patient is mobilized unless medically contraindicated. We have a mission to get patients out of bed for every meal. Physical therapy is not required before nursing can mobilize patients, and then to escalate the inability to mobilize patient to the provider upon admission, so we can address that in real time and see what we can do to make sure that they don’t stay in the bed.” TS 7:30

“We measured the progress of the program through documented mobility interventions, trending the patient’s mobility score and AM-PAC functional assessment, which is the Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care. And then also with NDNQI data like falls, falls with injury, pressure injuries, and then also patient satisfaction surveys.” TS 9:44

“We saw that 76% of our patients, they either maintained or improved their mobility score while they were in the hospital. We had a 6% reduction in excess days. We had a decrease in readmissions, about 6%. And then we saw an increase in our patient satisfaction score about the willingness to recommend the hospital from 63% to 91%. So we found those really powerful, meaningful, and we also had a lot of comment cards from patients highlighting the mobility program.” TS 17:16

“We know the literature is out there. We know the benefits exist. It’s really just about advocating and having a business plan that benefits both the organization, the staff, and the patients. And then pilot; start small. So you learn, you grow, you adjust. You figure out what works, what doesn’t, and then you scale it out.” TS 19:38

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