Authors (including presenting author) :
Ng SK(1), Lai CH(1), Tai WS(1), Ip SM(1), Chung YM(1), Lee KH(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Trauma and Emergency Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
Keeping patients’ information update in emergency department (ED) is the key to ensure the quality of nursing handover. With the volatility of patient and the enormous attendance especially during the surge period, tracking patients’ condition would be a complex task. What’s more, communication breakdown can be a potential threat to patient safety, a standardize framework for clinical handover is thereby introduced to ED.
Objectives :
To improve patient handover process and completeness of information transfer by (1) utilizing a standardized framework for accurate information transfer and (2) documentation of clinical handover in medical record.
Methodology :
A sticker label of standardized clinical handover framework was designed and implemented on patients that were pending for admission at Accident and Emergency Department (A&E) of Prince of Wales Hospital. Nurses were surveyed regarding the ease of use, completeness of information transfer, accuracy of information transfer, perceived usefulness and satisfaction after the first week of implementation.
Result & Outcome :
From the total no. of 302 cases in the first week, 81.5% of nurses surveyed agree that the label sticker was easy to use; 81.5% agreed that it could promote the completeness of information transfer; 66.7% agreed on the accuracy of information transfer. Overall, 70.4% of nurses surveyed perceived the label sticker as useful in improving patient handover process; 66.7% was satisfied with the content of the sticker label; and 14.8% was satisfied with the design of it. It was concluded that the structured clinical handover including both written and verbal components improve information transfer. However, it was suggested that the size of the label sticker should be smaller and the content should be further simplified, in order to minimize the time for documentation and the workload on nursing staff.
Co-location with:
