Nursing Commons^™

Robotic Team High Reliability Organization’S Communication Evaluation Tool, Joanne F. Mercurio

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Multidisciplinary team communication in robotic surgery presents several safety considerations for the intraoperative surgical patient. It is an important consideration since the surgeon and the operating room team are geographically distanced with the surgeon at the console, and the other team members situated at the patient bedside. Scrubbed team members are performing such functions as positioning the robotic arms as well as exchanging instruments, while the remaining interprofessional team members are coordinating multiple patient care activities. It therefore becomes imperative that the recognition of the potential for miscommunication is of paramount importance, and strategies need to be generated that will …

Improving Nursing Shift Handoff Reports: A Quality Improvement Project, Nathan Mm Secrest

Master's Projects and Capstones

Nursing shift-to-shift handoff report can greatly impact a patient’s quality of care. According to the Joint Commission, “an estimated 80 percent of serious medical errors involve miscommunication between caregivers when patients are transferred or handed-off” (Inadequate handoff communication, 2017). In total, this quality improvement (QI) project worked with three hospital inpatient units on three different floors in an urban California (CA) city. Each unit and even shifts within each unit varied, leading to the conclusion that interventions should be trialed by units with the most buy-in, then adjusted to the unique needs of each unit. For our main intervention we …

Improving The Perioperative Experience Of Patients And Families In A Pediatric Setting, Anjanette Pong

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: The experience of surgery for pediatric patients and their families can be dependent on multiple factors including adequate preparation, English language proficiency and realistic expectations. Anxiety can contribute to a negative experience that may result in poor outcomes and a damaging reflection of the healthcare team and organization.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: In preoperative pediatric patients and their families, how do therapeutic communication style and the provision of information about the perioperative experience affect their healthcare experience over eight weeks?

Evidence: A multi-modal approach to providing tailored preoperative education for the child and …

Improving Perioperative Communication: Can Labelled Theatre Caps Play A Role?, Maree Yates, Paula Foran

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

Studies have shown that approximately one third of operating room communications fail. This has a negative impact on patient safety, with half of all adverse events being attributed to communication failures. However, human factors have the capacity to protect patients. Aviation’s human factors strategies provide guidance for staff and are beneficial in the operating room. Currently, no intervention is universally applied to improve operating room communication and team performance. Closed loop communication, though poorly utilised, has been demonstrated to counteract communication errors, therefore protecting patient safety. In 2018, calls were made to take advantage of theatre caps to display staff …

Huddle Implementation In The Perioperative Setting, Tina Thomas

DNP Projects

Background: Communication is essential for safe and effective patient care. In the perioperative setting, information sharing is critical to care coordination. Lack of communication between caregivers can lead to medical errors. Evidence shows that huddles lead to increased communication, satisfaction, and engagement between team members resulting in better patient outcomes. Huddles are short, less than 10-minute gatherings that focus on the daily schedule, identify potential obstacles, explain unique needs, and discuss preceding day issues.

Objectives: This project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of huddles on employee satisfaction, engagement, and communication of healthcare workers while also determining if huddles were …

Closing Communication Gaps For Unplanned Surgical Patients: One Pre-Op Checklist At A Time, Seda L. Vash

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Unplanned, inpatient surgical patients were experiencing poor outcomes and dissatisfaction with their overall care. This surgical patient population also lacked communication from their healthcare teams with regard to plans of care throughout their hospital stays.

Context: This was a quality improvement project for the unplanned, inpatient surgical patient population in the Central Valley of California. Approximately 13% of this hospital’s surgical patients required post-surgical care in the inpatient units. These patients, according to unfavorable HCAHPS scores, experienced unsatisfying care and insufficient communication from their healthcare teams, including physicians and nurses.

Intervention: This project implemented an Add-On Communication Tool for …

'Can You Hear Me?' Barriers To And Facilitators Of Communication In The Presence Of Noise In The Operating Room, Louise C. Grant, Pat F. Nicholson, Bronwyn Davidson, Elizabeth Manias

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore health professionals’ perceptions of the impact of noise on communication in the operating room.

Sample and setting: Health professionals working in the operating room at a tertiary, affiliated, major referral hospital in northern Australia were recruited using purposive sampling.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken using an exploratory qualitative design to explore health professionals’ perceptions of communication and the impact of noise in the operating room. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: In all, 26 health professionals participated, including anaesthetists, surgeons, nurses and theatre technicians. Two themes were …

The ‘Human Factor’… Worth Considering?, Geoff Hay

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

On any given day, be it in our professional or personal lives, our predominant thought processes are geared towards outcomes. How often, though, do we allow ourselves time to pause and reflect on the human factors involved in our decision making? This article examines lessons we can learn from human factors training and systems used in aviation and how they can be applied in the perioperative environment.

Pressure Injury Prevention In The Perioperative Setting: An Integrative Review, Isabel Wang, Rachel Walker, Brigid M. Gillespie Phd

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

Background: Pressure injury (PI) has a significant impact on patients and their families, and is costly to health care institutions. Perioperative PI remains problematic, although little is reported about current perioperative pressure injury prevention (PIP) strategies.

Aim: To identify the key perioperative PIP strategies, following a systematic review of published research, to describe existing gaps in the literature, and to inform the development of subsequent observational study.

Design:An integrative literature review method developed by Whittemore and Knafl was used.

Method: Research inclusion and exclusion criteria were identified a priori. Six data bases were searched and search terms included pressure …

Private Pain – Identifying Gaps In The Management Of Chronic Pain Patients In Private Hospitals: A Case Study, Johanna Gale

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

This is a case study of a patient who experiences chronic pain and was admitted for an acute surgical procedure in a private hospital. It illustrates how communication and teamwork can be overlooked within the multidisciplinary focus when jointly caring for this group of patients within the public and private sectors. This case study offers a nurse-led approach to improving individualised health care for chronic pain patients while preventing gaps in health care.

Using Safety Checklists Outside Of The Operating Room, Annabelle Gerhardt

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Abstract

The use of a Time Out checklist for patient safety in non-operating room procedural areas is equally important for positive patient outcomes as in the operating room (OR). In this busy southwestern United States hospital, the procedural teams in the non-operating room areas were reported to not be fully engaged during the performance of the Time Out pre-procedural pause prior to gastroenterological (GI) procedures. This study was conducted to improve compliance with the scripted Time Out checklist and promote full engagement of the GI procedural team during the Time Out thus reducing risks of wrong site surgery. Literature has …

Interdepartmental Rounding, Peggy Anderson, Carrie Strick, R3 Med-Surg Unit, Haley Pelletier, Suneela Nayak, Stephen Tyzik, Ruth Hanselman, Maine Medical Center Operational Excellence

Maine Medical Center

STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DOCTORS AND NURSES IN AN ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL

Effective interdisciplinary communication is imperative for safe patient care in an acute care hospital environment.

A surgical unit used their HCAHPs scores to assess how often patients perceived there was good communication between different doctors and nurses during their hospital stays. The data demonstrated that this occurred 22% less often than the national average.

As a result of a root cause analysis, a number of countermeasures were initiated with the goal of achieving scores greater than the national average. Post KPI inception in the second quarter of …

An Experience Of Practitioners Navigating The Role Of Patient/Caregiver, Susan M. Shaw, Rain Lamdin

Patient Experience Journal

This journey involved one of us having (repeat) intraspinal surgery in a country far from home but of a similar culture and with the same first language. The carer travelled across the world to be present during the hospital stay. We kept a journal during our admission, and following discharge realised there were significant differences between how we had documented our experience and the record presented in the clinical notes. The particular examples we present illustrate the relationships, rules and issues that we navigated. We share our experience in the form of moments from our journal, some of them alongside …

Application Of The Patient Checklist Tool In Anesthesia Handoffs, Theresa Durley

DNP Scholarly Projects

Accurate and essential communication is required during the transfer of patient care from one health care provider to another. Communication errors during the handoff process have been identified as contributing factors in sentinel events. There is a plethora of literature supporting a standardized transfer of care process as well as several accepted handoff communication tools for the various units within a healthcare institution. However, in the anesthesia domain, there is currently only one protocol specifically created for the transfer of patient care between certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs). The PATIENT protocol, created by Dr. Suzanne M. Wright, CRNA, PhD (2013) …

Structured Communication Intervention To Reduce Anxiety Of Family Members Waiting For Relatives Undergoing Surgical Procedures, Kathryn Kynoch, Linda Crowe, Annie Mcardle, Judy Munday, Cj Cabilan, Sonia Hines

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

Perioperative nurses recognise that family members experience increased levels of anxiety during the wait for a relative undergoing a surgical procedure. It is often during this time that little or no meaningful communication occurs between family members and health professionals. It has been suggested that a structured information intervention has the potential to increase communication between families and health care professionals as well as decrease family members’ anxiety.

The aim of this study was to establish the effect of a structured communication program on anxiety of family members’ awaiting relatives undergoing surgical procedures. A quasi-experimental design was used with a …

Use Of A Handoff Communication Tool Between Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Anesthesiologists, And Post Anesthesia Care Unit Nurses, Rachel Louise Johnson

Doctoral Projects

Ineffective communication in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) is considered to have incidences of increased error, mortality, morbidity, which leads to decrease patient outcomes and quality of care. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to introduce a structured, standardized, and consistent handoff tool to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), Anesthesiologists, and Post Anesthesia Care Unit Nurses (PACU) that may result in favorable perception of usage. Without a structured handoff tool, the organization risks the occurrence of increasing errors when the message is not transmitted effectively and efficiently every time. Distractions leave the handoff susceptible to a breakdown during the …

The Collaborative Development Of A Pre-Operative Checklist: An E-Delphi Study, Katherine Murphy, Kim Walker, Jed Duff, Robyn Williams

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

The aim of this study was to identify which items should be included in a pre-operative checklist based on recommendations by nurse experts in order to promote patient safety and effective communication in the perioperative environment.

Method: Thirty-five nurses participated in this e-Delphi study, which was conducted online via SurveyMonkey.. Each survey presented participants with a list of potential items for inclusion in a pre-operative checklist. Participants were asked to identify items they felt should be included in the checklist with the option to include comments. Comments were de-identified and shared with other participants to allow confidential interaction. The surveys …

Improve Intra-Operative Nurse-To-Nurse Communication Using A Safety Checklist, Silvinita Tadeo Rowe

Doctoral Projects

Poor and inadequate handoff, or transfer of care of the surgical patient care from the primary to the relief operating room registered nurse circulators, can result in irreversible patient harm, or sentinel events, such as retained foreign items. In this study, Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory was the framework for implementing the handoff safety checklist. Also, Donabedian's structure process and outcome was the model to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and improvement in the quality of patient handoff communication and improvement of nurse satisfaction over time. Nineteen-statement surveys, conducted at multiple timeframes, were completed by volunteer operating room nurse participants. In …

Improving Patient Safety In The Operating Room: Utilizing A Safety Checklist And Briefings, Lori R. Schacht

Theses and Graduate Projects

The perioperative care setting can be a hazardous environment for patients undergoing surgery. Surgical teams caring for patients undergoing complex surgical procedures may create an opportunity for surgical errors impacting patient safety. The purpose of this project is to improve consistent standardized Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) use and briefings in the orthopedic perioperative care setting in a large Midwestern hospital, thereby supporting a culture of safety through staff engagement and a team-based communication approach. Watson’s Theory of Human Caring guided this project through the theoretical concepts of presence and faith. An initial implementation of the SSC and briefings revealed a …

Using Video Simulation To Enhance Rn-Pca Communication, Boris Chang

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this project was to develop a video simulation exercise to enhance communication between Registered Nurses (RNs) and Patient Care Assistants (PCAs). From a general microsystem assessment initially performed on an urban hospital medical-surgical unit, 75% of respondents noted that the most pertinent issue to address was improving communication between RNs and PCAs. Literature review of evidence-based practices found several studies that support the use of human clinical simulation to promote teamwork and interdisciplinary communication. RNs (n = 24) and PCAs (n = 9) were then individually interviewed with surveys and responses scored based on the …

Teamstepps Communication And In Situ Simulation Training To Improve Individual And Team Performance During Handoff Of The Immediate Post-Operative Cardiovascular Surgical Patient, Stacy Lynn Jepsen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The aim of this pilot study was to identify if establishing a reliable framework for consistent use of TeamSTEPPS communication would improve the team communication and performance during the critical handoff of the cardiac surgical patient from the OR team to the ICU team. Breakdown in handoff communication has been attributed as the cause of adverse health events, delays in treatment, inappropriate treatment, increased length of stay, and increased costs and inefficiencies from rework. Standardizing handoff communication is a Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal, and immediate postoperative cardiac surgical patients are a high-risk population needing consistently high quality communication …