Improving Hand Off Communication for Patient Safety

The patient safety issue identified was Hand Off Communication between Nursing departments, specifically the OR and other units. The critical information needed was not always readily available or difficult to locate for the OR staff upon patient arrival to the OR. The information although good for the staff, was not the critical information needed for patient safety. Multiple meetings were held with Nursing Leadership with decisions made to create a new form that would contain all of the information that was required. A trial was done in Ambulatory Surgery, with changes made as issues were identified and nursing staff gave input. A new OR checklist was developed for all units so that every unit was standardized, this included the ED. Training took place for 3 weeks.  I learned much about leadership with this SLP. In working with Nursing Leadership and staff nurses to strengthen professional practice,  I observed different communication and leadership styles. Team work and communication were a very important part of this SLP.   As a result, I am much better at developing goals, setting plans and evaluating project content through different lenses. The importance of patient safety and developing ways that ensure this was a good project for me. I was able to develop a tool that would be effective for patient safety and easy for nursing staff to use based on the National Patient Safety Goals. Decisions made respected staff input. Our team had trust and communication. Throughout this class, I’ve  observed how nursing and other departments have effective and non effective communication and how this impacts staff. This is the most important piece when working with a diverse group of people. When staff understand information that is communicated and have opportunity for input, they are very willing to engage and have their voices heard.