Improving Nursing Communication Through Handoff Tool Education: A Staff Education Project

The common practice of handoff of care communication is an integral part of patient care. However, ineffective handoff communication is associated with significant risks to patient outcomes. The issue of ineffective handoff of care is a local practice problem as well as a national issue. Strategies including standardized verbal, written, and electronic clinical handoff tools are emerging. However, many nurses are not knowledgeable regarding use of these standardized handoff of care tools. Therefore, the practice-focused question for this doctoral project asked whether an educational program on use of a standardized handoff tool could increase nursing knowledge as compared pre- and post-education. The purpose of this doctoral project was to increase nursing knowledge of a standardized handoff tool. Lewin’s change theory was used to inform this project. A literature review was conducted using databases including PUBMED, OVID, Medline, CINAHL, Walden University Library, and Google Scholar. Ten registered nurses from an inpatient medical-surgical participated in this staff education project. Nursing knowledge of the standardized illness severity, patient information, action list, situational awareness and contingency plans, and synthesis by receiver (I-PASS) tool were assessed before and after the intervention. The mean of the pretest group was 65.0 and the posttest mean was 79.0. Results via paired t test were 2.26, reflecting significance of improved knowledge. This project contributed to social change by providing nursing education that increased knowledge of standardized handoff tools. This can improve communication and safety during handoff of patient care and therefore has potential to improve patient care.