Implementing Team Huddles on an Acute Psychiatric Unit: Evidence-Based Practice Project

Barriers to implementing Evidence Based practice have been reported extensively include: lack of time, lack of resources and lack of knowledge.  Nurses are aware of the value of research and evidence based practice, nurse often want others to collect and synthesize the evidence and convince them of its benefits before they adopt to new practices. Changing culture is difficult. Evidence based practice requires  team work and persistence. One of the goals of current undergraduate Baccalaureate Nurse education programs is to provide knowledge of the importance of evidence based practice. One of the primary goals of the a Post Baccalaureate Nurse Residency program is to provide the time and PhD nurse mentorship to assist in the application of  the skill set to incorporate evidence based practice into the clinical nursing practice culture. One evidence based practice project, which had been developed over a 12 month period by two novice nurses will be described, from the beginning to completion.

Optimal communication is imperitive in any healthcare setting to ensure patient and staff safety.  Today's patient care issues can be very complex and require all team members being aware of all issues.  Each staff member has unique interactions with patients.  Observations and interactions need to be shared with entire staff so that pertinent information is shared with treatment team. "We should spend less time making decisions and more time creating meaning through dialogue, interpretation, observation, reflection on experiences, and construction of explanations." (Provost et al. 2014). Huddles have been shown to benefit teamwork comraderie and oganization operations.  Huddle framework emphasizes conversation, interpersonal relationships, and unit culture. The two Novice nurses who developed this Evidence based practice project presented an educational program to the unit staff on team shift huddles. A survey tool was created to capture results of huddles employed. Results will be discussed regarding team members observations, barriers and limitations as well as recommendations for future use by healthcare team members.