Purpose
To ensure that accountability and information required for the care of a patient are
transferred effectively and on time from one nurse to the other during a change of shift. To also
ensure that effective communication is considered during the whole process of nurse handoffs.
Another purpose of this project is to ensure that nurses observe 100% cooperation during a
change of shifts. The one supposed to be handed over the responsibility of caring for the patient
to reach on time so that it does not affect the resting time of the other nurse. Lastly, to offer
education to registered nurses and training them on how to fulfill effective nurse handoffs and
how to plan for organized shifts (Chitkara et al, 2017).
The target population
This program focuses on nurses who are currently practicing. It also focuses on nurse
leaders who can control and contribute to effective handoffs. To add on that, it focuses on
student nurses who would learn how to ensure the nurse handoffs are done perfectly with no or
fewer limitations. The project focuses on the provision of education on quality improvement on
several issues about nurse handoffs. It also aims at assessing and awarding marks to nurses by
observing how they conduct shifts and how they communicate during handing over the
information about the patient (O'Rourke et al, 2018).
The benefits of effective nurse handoffs
The initiative comes with many benefits which am looking forward to supporting to
achieve the goals and the benefits. I will start with patient safety. Handing over of all information
EFFECTIVE NURSE HANDOFFS 3
about the medication of patient and specific care procedures would help to minimize errors
during patient care. The patient would be protected from severing health conditions and pain
may be due to wrong medication. The patient would also have an easy time to recover and pay
for fewer days spent in the wards. Effective nurse handoffs allow the patient to inquire more
from both nurses to get clarification and satisfaction about their health. Another benefit for
effective nurse handoffs is that patients are present during transfer of information from one nurse
to the other and there he/she will be aware of everything concerning their care and in case of any
new information or wrong information, they are free to alert both parties of nurses. Effective
nurse handoffs save on time and enhance the smooth continuation of care without the delayed
performance of activities. Nurses observing time during the change of shift saves on time and
improves the speed of work. The project also aims at benefiting the whole healthcare
organization by imposing high performance in the nurse handoffs project (Williams, 2018).
Inter-professional collaboration required for implementation
To successfully implement this project of effective nurse handoffs, it is important to work
using collaboration to support the project and enhance easy implementation. The first people
required to cooperate and support this project are the nurses. Working together with nurses
would enhance successful and improved nurse handoffs by planning strategies on shift, time
management and ensuring effective communication during handing over of the patient
information. The cooperation of nurses would have a positive impact on the implementation of
effective nurse handoffs. It is also important to incorporate the nurse leaders in the
implementation of this project for several reasons. Working with leaders means that it would be
easier to collect all the resources necessary for the implementation and application of the project
in practice. Nurse managers together with other officials in nursing would use the strategies set
EFFECTIVE NURSE HANDOFFS 4
in the project to convince other nurses to practice effective nurse handoffs for improved patient
outcomes. The project has enough strategies and reasons to incorporate other professionals for
implementation and supporting positive patient outcomes (Nimmo, 2019).
Budget justification.
The project is full of important strategies and improved future nursing in handoffs and
therefore it requires the input of resources to make it functional. For effective communication,
the purchase of communication devices such as hospital telephones and storage devices such as
computers are required. They would ensure that both parties of nurses who should change shift
communicate effectively and transfer of all patient information to the ones who take over. That
requires a rough estimation of 800$. Provision of education to nurses and students about
effective nurse handoffs requires reference materials that must be bought. Places for teaching
should also be provided to achieve the goal of education. That would also require a rough
estimation of 500$. Other small needs may arise such as payment for working extra hours,
purchase of record materials and storage places of patient drugs. It requires funds that may
amount to approximately 200$ (Abraham et al, 2016).
The basis upon which effective nurse handoffs will be evaluated.
The project has targets and goals that should be achieved and therefore there is a quality
assurance and evaluation book that would be referred on when evaluating. It as all the targets and
goals that should be achieved progressively after a certain period. It has a strategy that requires
nurse managers to frequently monitor and evaluate the work of nurses during handoffs (Pandya
et al, 2019).
EFFECTIVE NURSE HANDOFFS 5
References
Abraham, J., Kannampallil, T., Brenner, C., Lopez, K. D., Almoosa, K. F., Patel, B., & Patel, V.
L. (2016). Characterizing the structure and content of nurse handoffs: a sequential
conversational analysis approach. Journal of biomedical informatics, 59, 76-88.
Chitkara, H., Dials, K., Schuh, K., Thompson, N., Wagner, C., & White, M. (2017). A Protocol
to Enhance Nurse-to-Nurse Communication during Patient Handoff.
Nimmo, M. J. (2019). Standardizing Patient Handoff from the Emergency Department to the
Stepdown Inpatient Unit.
O'Rourke, J., Abraham, J., Riesenberg, L. A., Matson, J., & Lopez, K. D. (2018). A Delphi study
to identify the core components of nurse to nurse handoff. Journal of advanced
nursing, 74(7), 1659-1671.
Pandya, C., Clarke, T., Scarsella, E., Alongi, A., Amport, S. B., Hamel, L., & Dougherty, D.
(2019). Ensuring Effective Care Transition Communication: Implementation of an
Electronic Medical Record–Based Tool for Improved Cancer Treatment Handoffs
Between Clinic and Infusion Nurses. Journal of Oncology Practice, 15(5), e480-e489.
Williams, C. L. (2018). A comparison of the risks and benefits of nursing bedside shift report vs.
traditional shift report: A systematic review of the literature. International Journal of
Studies in Nursing, 3(2),