PICOT Question Formulation: Nurse-to-Nurse Hand-Off Communication Problems

PICOT Question Formulation
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PICOT Question Formulation
In the perioperative settings, nurses have very small checklists to help them capture patient information and facilitate nurse-to-nurse handoff. In addition, patient recovery and general patient outcomes in this specific clinical setting depend on the effectiveness of hand-off communication between nurses. As Methangkool et al. (2019) reveal, the care units in the perioperative setting, such as the operating room and post-anesthesia care unit, are highly vulnerable to hand-off communication problems. This threatens patient safety and recovery. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a PICOT question that addresses nurse-to-nurse hand-off communication problems among perioperative nurses.
PICOT Question
In nursing research, developing and implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) to improve patient care is critical. Nurses come across clinical problems in the course of their practice and the best way of addressing such problems is to develop answerable questions and use existing evidence to answer the questions. The PICOT question format was developed to ensure that healthcare professionals can come up with accurate answers to a clinical question (Eriksen & Frandsen, 2018). It is used as a search strategy tool. An effective clinical question must focus on:
1 The Problem/Patient (P)
2 The Intervention (I)
3 The Comparison Intervention (C)
4 The Clinical Outcome (O)
5 The Time (T)
The PICOT question developed to address nurse-to-nurse handoff communication problem in the perioperative setting is as follows:
In the perioperative setting (P), what is the impact of a standardized hand-off protocol (I) among perioperative nurses compared to the current hand-off (C) on nurse communication and patient safety (O) within six weeks (T)?
Nursing Intervention
During transfer/transition of patient care, communication breakdown threatens nurse-to-nurse handoffs and ultimately, patient safety (Raeisi et al., 2019). A nursing intervention needs to be instituted to address this issue. To improve nurse-to-nurse handoff communication, the use of a standardized handoff protocol is proposed. An effective standardized handoff protocol should define the intent and content of the handoff, have a standardized handoff tool and format, and facilitate the timely transition of care responsibility (Caruso et al., 2017). The proposed standardized handoff protocol will use the SBAR as the standardized handoff tool. SBAR is an acronym for situation, background, assessment, recommendation, a tool that is used in clinical settings to ensure that patient medical information is presented in a structured, logical format (Shahid & Thomas, 2018). Nurses will be using the four easy steps of SBAR to communicate. The current handoff lacks a structured handoff tool which is why nurses' reports in the perioperative department are very poor. Positive outcomes of this intervention are expected within six weeks of its implementation.
Clinical Problem an...