Date of Graduation

Winter 12-16-2022

Document Access

Restricted Project/Capstone - USF access only

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Program

MSN project

First Advisor

Mahmoud Kaddoura, PhD, CAGS, MSN, APRN, NP-C, CNE

Second Advisor

Scout Hebinck, MSN, RNC-OB

Abstract

Background

Miscommunications in healthcare can cause medical errors and adverse events. Standardizing communication and clarifying expectations has become a priority for several healthcare systems, including Hospital A. The quality improvement (QI) team collaborated with clinical nurse leaders on an evidence-based improvement project to enhance handoff communication in the telemetry department.

Methods

Using a plan-do-study-act methodology, the QI team dispersed a baseline survey assessing unit culture and determined areas of improvement based on the responses. The QI team developed an education program explaining the various clinical communication tools like SBAR, TRACER, and an automatically-generated EHR report that nurses can use to structure their patient handoff and ensure thorough, accurate information.

Results

On the baseline survey, 80 percent of nurses reported that conciseness and clarity make an effective handoff process, and 70 percent of nurses reported disorganization makes for ineffective handoff processes. Average nurse satisfaction was 4.2 on a Five-Point Likert Scale, but nurses reported frustrations with the lack of standardization and expressed a desire for a more organized, structured process. Expected results from the education program intervention are based on a similar study by Koo et al. (2020) that found an increase in handoff data accuracy from 51 to 97 percent following the implementation of SBAR handoffs with an EHR-tool. The frequency of patients with incorrectly listed information decreased from 51 percent to 0 percent. Staff satisfaction showed an increase on the Likert Scale (Koo et al., 2020).

Conclusion

The QI project found that standardized reports using SBAR and other clinical communication tools can help reduce medical errors, improve communication, and increase nurse satisfaction.

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