Capstone Project: Bedside Shift Reporting in an Acute Hospital Setting

CAPSTONE PROJECT: BEDSIDE SHIFT REPORTING IN AN ACUTE HOSPITAL SETTING
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Professor
Date
Capstone Project: Bedside Shift Reporting in an Acute Hospital Setting
The Problem
Bedside shift reporting is a vital part in acute hospital settings. Because of the nature of the services provided by acute care hospitals and the level of care demand by its patients, effective bedside shift reporting during turnovers or shift changes are important to maintain the good health outcome of the patient. Furthermore, studies show that a lack of clear communication between caregivers during patient transfers contributes to more than 80% of medical errors (Mitchell et al., 2017). However, because of standards of nursing care, not all institutions have fully shifted to bedside reporting from general shift reports despite of positive outcomes being observed from moving reports to the bedside (McAllen et al., 2018).
Setting or Context of the Problem
Acute care hospitals provide health care for patients who experience acute conditions like injuries, trauma, disease, or post-surgery complications. Because of this, the complexity of care is elevated, as the demands of the patients and all professionals involved are also increased (Huber et al., 2020). Thus, communication through bedside shift recording has become more important in this type of hospital setting because any possible risks of mistakes are more crucial to the patient’s health outcomes.
Description of the Problem
Off-going and incoming nurses traditionally communicate through time-efficient methods like written communication (through notes, charts, etc.), or tape-recorded nursing reports (like voice recordings/notes). However, there is much room for error and misinterpretation. Communication between nurses or between nurses and patients is made possible through the bedside reporting, and this process is made vital when research showed that shifting to this type of reporting improved patient outcomes. Nurses have commented that based on their experiences, bedside shift reporting is more efficient and effective in terms of preventing the necessity for more future work due to complications or errors. Nurses noted that handoff processes should be based on a standardized checklist like the AHRQ Bedside Shift Report Checklist (Jimmerson et al., 2020). They also noted that there are proper ways to conduct personal shift reports, especially when there is something that patients cannot or should not be privy of in bedside reporting. As such, some nurses recommend to optimize bedside shift reporting by doing handoffs inside and outside patients’ rooms, depending on the situation (Jummerson et al., 2020).
Effect of the Problem
The lack of implementation or non-standardized implementation of bedside shift reporting in acute hospitals can contribute to declining patient outcomes and poor communication which can lead to similar outcome...