Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Background. Ineffective patient handoff can result in poor nurse communication, increasing the likelihood of adverse events including medication and documentation errors. Context/Problem. In one 20-bed ICU unit in a northern California community hospital, 48 patient handoffs were observed over 2 weeks. Only 29% occurred at the patient’s bedside; 39.5% used a standardized handoff tool; and 54% included the patient and/or family. These findings indicate significant quality gaps in the unit’s ICU patient handoff processes. Intervention. The educational intervention consisted of one introductory and two follow-up teaching sessions related to best practices for handoff processes followed by implementation of the I PUT PATIENTS FIRST handoff tool. Measures. Metrics include a Likert-scale survey to assess nurse perceptions of the handoff process and post-implementation observation of 96 handoffs to evaluate the intervention’s impact on 3 handoff domains: location (bedside), patient/family involvement, and use of the I PUT PATIENTS FIRST tool. Results. Due to current hospital Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, the intervention is on hold until conditions allow change projects to resume. However, the project team anticipates ≥ 25% improvement in each handoff domain and ≥ 50% improvement in nurse perception. Conclusions. Definitive conclusions cannot be drawn until after the project has been fully implemented and evaluated after the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the project team expects that implementing evidence-based handoff practices will result in measurable engagement and improvement in nurse knowledge exchange processes in the ICU. Keywords: handoff, nurse knowledge exchange, communication, standardized tool, quality, ICU.
Author: Wislande Joseph
Language: English
Subfield: Leadership and Management
Field: Nursing
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3210752628