Research Implications Clinical Implications Practice Recommendations Standardizing Nursing Shift Handoff Report Kelcie Mendes, Senior Nursing Student University of New Hampshire, Department of Nursing Research Implications A comparative study directly between the I-PASS tool and SBAR tool Comparison of time spent on report during each form of handoff Purpose To address the following PICO question: In adult medical-surgical patients, will standardizing shift handoff report using the I-PASS tool, as compared to individualized report, be effective in decreasing negative patient outcomes? Current Literature “Nurses in different settings have different perceptions about what is important to be conveyed…” (Friesen, White, & Byers, 2008) “Incomplete transfer of medication information is recognized as a possible contributor to patient safety problems as patients are discharged from the hospital.” (Friesen, White, & Byers, 2008) “65% of sentinel events occurred as a result of staff miscommunication.” (Ayala, 2017) “I-PASS implementation was associated with improvements in verbal handoff communications, including inclusion of illness severity assessment, patient summary, to do list and an opportunity for the receiving nurse to ask questions.” (Starmer et al., 2017) “The team (of Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) in New Jersey) reported back during informal inquiries and frequent meetings that the I-PASS tool better allowed them to be specific, standardized, and all-inclusive during report.” (Clements, 2017) Clinical Implications Improved provider-to-provider communication Decreased negative patient outcomes Improved understanding of patient timeline Decreased confusion among nursing staff regarding continuation of patient care More consistent, quicker hand-off Increased incidence of receiver questions Increased time spent reporting on patients (Figure 1) Goal: Standardize nursing hand-off to improve overall patient outcomes and continuity of care Practice Recommendations A policy should be implemented standardizing information exchange between nursing staff. This researcher suggests the I-PASS tool as a basis for a comprehensive exchange of information between shift changes. (Figure 2)