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Nurse-to-nurse beside handoffallows the oncoming nurse to visualize the patient and ask questions of the previous nurse. It encourages patients to be involved actively in their care and allows standardized communication between nursing shifts. CNE Objectives and Evaluation Form appear on page 145. Background
Patient handoffbetween nurses at shiftchange has been an important process in clinical nursing practice, allowing nurses to exchange necessary patient information to ensure continuity of care and patient safety. Bedside handoffallows the patient the ability to contribute to his or her plan of care. It also allows the oncoming nurse an opportunity to visualize the patient and ask questions. This is critical in meeting the Joint Commission's 2009 National Patient Safety Goals. It encourages patients to be involved actively in their care and it implements standardized handoffcommunication between nursing shifts. Bedside handoffpromotes patient safety and allows an opportunity for patients to correct misconceptions.
Methods
A convenience sample of 60 patients was enrolled, 30 before the practice change and 30 after the change. All nursing staffwere invited to participate. Both patients and staffwere given self-designed surveys before and after the practice change.
Results
Fifteen nurses with a mean of 2 years in the profession completed the pre- and post-survey. A majority of staffwere not satisfied with the current shiftchange report, but statistical improvement was achieved after the practice change. Also, statistical improvement was achieved with patients' satisfaction with involvement in their plan of care.
Conclusions
Use of bedside nursing handoffpromotes staffaccountability, two-person IV medication reconciliation, and patient satisfaction.
Historically, nurses have provided patient information to the oncoming nursing staffto ensure continuity of care (Chaboyer et al., 2009). Pertinent information in the shifthandoffoften includes patient diagnosis, procedures performed, hemodynamic stability, the plan of care, and any topics for discussion during physician rounds (Caruso, 2007). Over time, the practice of performing change of shiftnursing handoffhas varied. In most cases, the patient and family were not present or part of the handoffpractice. Most nursing handoffs occur in a conference room or at the nursing station away from the patient's bedside in a process that does not allow the patient and family to be active participants in the information exchange. Moving the change-of-shifthandoffto the patient's bedside allows the oncoming nurse to visualize the patient as...