Bedside End Of Shift Reporting : Contents And Format That Enhance Patient Safety

Bedside reporting has the primary function of sharing patient information between nurses, as they change shifts. The nurse ending their shift would report all the changes that have occurred in the state of the patient and all measures which have been taken for the respective patient. This information would be transmitted to the nurse commencing her shift, who would then write and further transmit all patient information occurring during their shift, to the nurse coming to replace them.

Traditionally, nursing shift-to-shift reports were organized methods of communication between only the oncoming and leaving nurse, designated to a location such as the central nursing station or nook of a hallway. Shift reports can be considered the foundation of how the day is going to plan out because it introduces the patient, diagnoses, complications, medications, consults, upcoming test and the entire plan of care. These reports are full of complicated and vital information and while set in certain locations that are vulnerable to interruptions, such as the nursing station, medical errors and miscommunication are more likely to be made. The Joint Commission’s 2009 and 2010 National Patient Safety Goals (Joint Commission, 2015) included two patient safety standards, first to encourage patients to be involved in their health care plan and second, to implement a standardized communication process for handoff reports between providers. Soon after in 2013, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality under the United States Department of Health and Human Services introduced a set of strategies to improve patient engagement along with safety and quality in patient care. Within these strategies the new method of nurse bedside shift report was developed, which suggests nurses to conduct shift-to-shift reports at bedside in the room of each patient, rather than out of the room. The benefits of this new method were

This study evaluated if changing the process of shift handover from traditional form conducted in an off stage area to handover at the bedside could lead to improved safety for patients and cost reductions by shortening the duration of handover. The researchers also examined staff perceptions and satisfaction with the traditional method of handover versus th

The nursing topic of interest is bedside handover, which is the concept of conducting shift handover at the patient’s bed instead of doing it at the front desk.

According to the first step of Lewin’s theory Unfreeze phase is about helping nurses to recognize the need for change and encourage them to think about what the current process of end of shift reporting, what the disadvantages are, and how it can be improved. According to Sand-Jecklin and Sherman (2014), significant percentage of a nurse’s communications occurs during end of shift handoffs, and the safety of the patient can be compromised at this time. Nurses recognized that patient handoffs as a factor regarding near miss incidents. According to the Joint Commission (2011), miscommunication is one of the factors that leading to sentinel patient events, therefore, it is a requirement of Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals. Nursing handoff report is the time, when responsibility and accountability for the care of a patient would be transferred from one nurse to another. Ineffective handovers, such as when not all required information is provided, can be risky for patients and staffs. According to Novak and Fairchild (2012), the method for delivery of shift report varies among hospitals, units, and nurses. These handoffs occur at busy times with multiple distractions and time constraints. This makes shift-to-shift report a time with high potential for the occurrence of errors related to communication. Reports done away from bedside hinder the patient’s participation in their care, which results in a decrease in patient satisfaction scores.

This paper will examine the best nursing practice for standardizing shift-to-shift reports. I became interested in this topic after hearing my mother talk about her day floating to a floor at her hospital. She received report on her patients from two different nurses that morning. Each nurse gave her different information and both were missing information that she considered vital to the care of her patients. She normally works in the ICU and on the step-down medical surgical floor, which both use a version of a template that was designed by one of the nurses to facilitate a standardized shift-to-shift

A significant quality improvement issue that has been implemented triggering one to reevaluate how their tasks are performed and care is given is a sentinel event. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) describes numerous patient safety measures with a sentinel event being one. The purpose of a sentinel event is to recognize an event, reduce further risk, prevent future injury or harm, learn from the experience, and prevent it from happening again. A sentinel even is defined as an unforeseen incidence that may include serious physical, psychological injury or death and can include loss of limb or function (www.jointcommision.org). Implementing sentinel events by educating staff on what a sentinel event

Handoffs during shift change between nurses is one of the most important ways to communicate essential information related to the patients’ care and their safety. This is an evidence-based practice that improves communication among nurses and patients since the handoffs are conducted at the patients’ bedside, face-to-face, with the computer using SBAR. The patients are involved in the update of their care with the incoming nurse, enabling them to share concerns and to add valuable information, which increases patients’ satisfaction. Additionally, during the handoffs, the nurses with the patients are able to review and update the patients’ white board with the goals, activities, procedures, labs, consults, and symptom management for the incoming

Positive patient outcomes and ethical responsibilities are other areas of concern to discuss on the topic of patient safety. Health facilities with low staffing levels are at greater risk for negative patient outcomes. Along with falls mentioned earlier, urinary tract infections and pneumonia are other examples of adverse outcomes that could potentially be avoided with more nurses on

Communication plays a critical role in the healthcare industry. It is a critical part of nurse, as you will be providing viable information to the different individuals. As a nurse one reason that communication is critical is during handoff. “A standardized handoff communication tool is recognized as a Joint Commission patient safety goal to reduce communication errors and improve patient safety” (Taylor, 2015). In recent years, healthcare facility has change the shift report from a report outside the room to a bedside report. A bedside report been established to reduce medical errors, and improve patient safety. Bedside report also incorporates the patient involvement in their own care. Engaging patient in their health care, can lead to

The bedside shift-to-shift communication in relation to the CNO/RNAO did not address our research question directly but it can be related to the accountability CNO professional standard, “providing, facilitating and promoting the best possible care for client” (CNO, p. 4). The nurse is responsible to hand off his/her patient to the next nurse appropriately and the incoming nurse is accountable to learn as much as many information she/he can get from the previous nurse before providing care to the patient to promote pt. safety and enhance his or her care. I’m currently at North York Gen. hospital and we’ve learned that bedside-shift communication is in their policy, as a matter of fact they have four ways of pt. transferring; written, electronic,

In NURS 415 I chose to review the concept of bedside shift reporting. At the facility I work at the nurses use this type of handoff and I really do believe it makes a difference with our patients. So, for my senior project I would like to choose the topic on how bedside shift reporting can improve both patient satisfaction and safety. There are a multitude of great reasons why a health care facility should implement bedside reporting and I hope to prove to everyone how great this process is. Please let me know what you all think! Also, I attached a copy of my clinical protocol poster from

Very good your participation. As part of my practice I had the opportunity to witness a shift handover between supervisor and nurse manager who then verifies the population of each department, the staff had in the shift, if there were absences, the category of patients and if necessary reassigned staff from one department to another where there was the need always taking into consideration the competence of the employee to be moved that will be able to provide the service. If absences arises for other shifts the program is verified for possible movement and if not being able to perdiems are approved or overtime but the staff is completed to not affect the service and expose personnel to make mistakes that with good programming can be avoided.

An incident reporting was perceived as having a positive effect on safety, not only by leading to changes in care processes, but also by changing staff attitudes and knowledge and working environment. In response, our organization developed many forum categories for specific incident type; however SRS suffer an unknown degree of underreporting, given that reporting is voluntary and spontaneous, and a systematic surveillance system is not feasible. Yet some staff those using the reporting system for accountability; wrongly interpret SRS data as valid rates of errors or as a valid measure of patient safety.

Effective communication is critical during shift to shift report to ensure patients are receiving the highest quality care and safety (Wakefield, Ragan, Brandt, & Tregnago, 2012). There has been increasing interest in bringing shift to shift report back to the bedside to include the patient. Evidence supports bedside shift report (BSR) improves patient satisfaction, elevates accountability and increases overall communication amongst the caregivers. For years shift to shift report has taken place outside and away from the patient room leaving patients alone and unattended for long periods of time. “Research has shown that sentinel events are more likely to occur during this “alone” time" (Ofori-Atta, Binienda, & Chalupka, 2015).