Purpose
To ensure that accountability and information required for the care of a patient are transferred effectively and on time from one nurse to the other during a change of shift. To also ensure that effective communication is considered during the whole process of nurse handoffs. Another purpose of this project is to ensure that nurses observe 100% cooperation during a change of shifts. The one supposed to be handed over the responsibility of caring for the patient to reach on time so that it does not affect the resting time of the other nurse. Lastly, to offer education to registered nurses and training them on how to fulfill effective nurse handoffs and how to plan for organized shifts (Chitkara et al, 2017).
The target population
This program focuses on nurses who are currently practicing. It also focuses on nurse leaders who can control and contribute to effective handoffs. To add on that, it focuses on student nurses who would learn how to ensure the nurse handoffs are done perfectly with no or fewer limitations. The project focuses on the provision of education on quality improvement on several issues about nurse handoffs. It also aims at assessing and awarding marks to nurses by observing how they conduct shifts and how they communicate during handing over the information about the patient (O’Rourke et al, 2018).
The benefits of effective nurse handoffs
The initiative comes with many benefits which am looking forward to supporting to achieve the goals and the benefits. I will start with patient safety. Handing over of all information about the medication of patient and specific care procedures would help to minimize errors during patient care. The patient would be protected from severing health conditions and pain may be due to wrong medication. The patient would also have an easy time to recover and pay for fewer days spent in the wards. Effective nurse handoffs allow the patient to inquire more from both nurses to get clarification and satisfaction about their health. Another benefit for effective nurse handoffs is that patients are present during transfer of information from one nurse to the other and there he/she will be aware of everything concerning their care and in case of any new information or wrong information, they are free to alert both parties of nurses. Effective nurse handoffs save on time and enhance the smooth continuation of care without the delayed performance of activities. Nurses observing time during the change of shift saves on time and improves the speed of work. The project also aims at benefiting the whole healthcare organization by imposing high performance in the nurse handoffs project (Williams, 2018).
Inter-professional collaboration required for implementation
To successfully implement this project of effective nurse handoffs, it is important to work using collaboration to support the project and enhance easy implementation. The first people required to cooperate and support this project are the nurses. Working together with nurses would enhance successful and improved nurse handoffs by planning strategies on shift, time management and ensuring effective communication during handing over of the patient information. The cooperation of nurses would have a positive impact on the implementation of effective nurse handoffs. It is also important to incorporate the nurse leaders in the implementation of this project for several reasons. Working with leaders means that it would be easier to collect all the resources necessary for the implementation and application of the project in practice. Nurse managers together with other officials in nursing would use the strategies set in the project to convince other nurses to practice effective nurse handoffs for improved patient outcomes. The project has enough strategies and reasons to incorporate other professionals for implementation and supporting positive patient outcomes (Nimmo, 2019).
Budget justification.
The project is full of important strategies and improved future nursing in handoffs and therefore it requires the input of resources to make it functional. For effective communication, the purchase of communication devices such as hospital telephones and storage devices such as computers are required. They would ensure that both parties of nurses who should change shift communicate effectively and transfer of all patient information to the ones who take over. That requires a rough estimation of 800$. Provision of education to nurses and students about effective nurse handoffs requires reference materials that must be bought. Places for teaching should also be provided to achieve the goal of education. That would also require a rough estimation of 500$. Other small needs may arise such as payment for working extra hours, purchase of record materials and storage places of patient drugs. It requires funds that may amount to approximately 200$ (Abraham et al, 2016).
The basis upon which effective nurse handoffs will be evaluated.
The project has targets and goals that should be achieved and therefore there is a quality assurance and evaluation book that would be referred on when evaluating. It as all the targets and goals that should be achieved progressively after a certain period. It has a strategy that requires nurse managers to frequently monitor and evaluate the work of nurses during handoffs (Pandya et al, 2019).
References
Abraham, J., Kannampallil, T., Brenner, C., Lopez, K. D., Almoosa, K. F., Patel, B., & Patel, V. L. (2016). Characterizing the structure and content of nurse handoffs: a sequential conversational analysis approach. Journal of biomedical informatics, 59, 76-88.
Chitkara, H., Dials, K., Schuh, K., Thompson, N., Wagner, C., & White, M. (2017). A Protocol to Enhance Nurse-to-Nurse Communication during Patient Handoff.
Nimmo, M. J. (2019). Standardizing Patient Handoff from the Emergency Department to the Stepdown Inpatient Unit.
O’Rourke, J., Abraham, J., Riesenberg, L. A., Matson, J., & Lopez, K. D. (2018). A Delphi study to identify the core components of nurse to nurse handoff. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(7), 1659-1671.
Pandya, C., Clarke, T., Scarsella, E., Alongi, A., Amport, S. B., Hamel, L., & Dougherty, D. (2019). Ensuring Effective Care Transition Communication: Implementation of an Electronic Medical Record–Based Tool for Improved Cancer Treatment Handoffs Between Clinic and Infusion Nurses. Journal of Oncology Practice, 15(5), e480-e489.
Williams, C. L. (2018). A comparison of the risks and benefits of nursing bedside shift report vs. traditional shift report: A systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Studies in Nursing, 3(2), 40.