Carrie Clark
Seventy percent of errors or sentinel events are attributed to poor communication during nurse handoff (Small et al., 2016). One identified barrier to poor communication is a standardized process for handoff (Stewart, 2017). Since communication is the foundation of patient care, it is crucial to provide accurate, up-to-date information in a timely manner to the oncoming nurse. The purpose of this project was to implement bedside nurse-to-nurse handoff reports using a standardized tool, the SBAR tool. This implementation took place in the emergency department, a complex environment where information can easily be miscommunicated or omitted due to the chaos of the setting. However, nurse-to-nurse handoff is significant in every department and should be consistent. Posters were placed in the department to remind staff of the SBAR tool. Nurses were instructed on the importance of proper handoff and educated on using the SBAR tool and performing bedside report by providing a mandatory learning experience to all nurses to education them on the SBAR tool, how to give a proper handoff, and tips for bedside reporting to help them be effective and efficient in their handoff. Improved handoff and communication between nurses are predicted to result in decreased incident reports and medication errors, as well as, increased patient satisfaction scores. Data will continue to be evaluated over a six month period to assess these findings.
Biography:
Carrie Clark completed her ASN from Tri County Technical college in 2003, then returned to school to complete her BSN from University of Lousiana at Lafayette in 2017. She is scheduled to graduate with her MSN from Columbus State University in December 2019. Much of her background is in labor and delivery and NICU, however she currently works as a team leader in a rural hospital emergency room. While unpublished at the time of this submission, she is looking forward to contributing input from her experience to the nursing profession.
