Quality and Safety Goals in Healthcare: Communication and Bedside Shift Report Revitalizing an Important Initiative

Quality and Safety Goals in Healthcare: Communication and Bedside Shift Report

Revitalizing an Important Initiative

 

By Lupe Puente BSN, RN, District 8 Board Member TONE, President SCTONE

 

Personal commitment is imperative when it comes to quality and safety. The level of accountability has to begin by each member of the healthcare team recognizing we have to hold each other personally responsible for quality care and safe patient care. Patient centered care is "providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions" (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2012, p. 3).

Communication is one area in healthcare that continues to be a challenge. There are so many moving pieces involved in a patient handoff and something can be forgotten or overlooked during the process. This continues to be a safety issue in our healthcare system that causes multiple concerns including delay in care, errors in care or can even negatively impact patient outcome. Bedside report is an initiative that is not new yet continues to be inconsistent among bedside nurses. The purpose of bedside report has always been to include the patient in their plan of care as well as to build trust and rapport among the healthcare providers and the patient and family. It is of value to allow the patients and families to engage in the handoff process, ask questions, and sometimes even intervene when the information being exchanged is not accurate. "Transparency is expected when it comes to patient safety" (Ofori-Atta, Binienda, & Chalupka, 2015, para. 27). In fact, transparency is needed to improve quality and safety for our patients.

Although we are all aware of it as nurses, there still continues to be a struggle with the commitment to bedside report. We cannot lose focus on the simple things that can truly impact patient safety and quality as well as experience.

Bedside report is an effective way to gain trust and commitment from our patients. It develops ownership from each patient in their own health and it is also a needed goal to establish individualized patient centered care. Have you re-evaluated whether bedside shift report is occurring in your organization today? Let’s not lose focus on this meaningful patient safety initiative.

 

References

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. (2012). Crossing the Quality Chasm: The IOM Health Care Quality Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/˜/media/Files/Report%20Files/2001/Crossing-the-Quality-Chasm/Quality%20Chasm%202001%20%20report%20brief.pdf

 

Ofori-Atta, J., Binienda, M., & Chalupka, S. (2015, August). Bedside shift report: Implications for patient safety and quality of care. Nursing, 45(8), 1-4. DOI:10.1097/01.NURSE.0000469252.96846.1a