Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Problem/Project Report

Degree Type

DNP

College

School of Nursing

Department

Anesthesiology

Committee Chair

Ashley Barber

Committee Co-Chair

Angela Jeffries

Committee Member

Marian Longstreth

Committee Member

Emily Moore

Abstract

Introduction/Background: Transfer of care is a vulnerable time for patients. Continuity of care depends on good communication from the transferring team to the receiving team. Communication failures contribute to frustration among medical staff and poor patient outcomes. Purpose: The purose of this project was to improve handoff communication and satisfaction between the anesthesia team in the operating room (OR) and the receiving surgical intensive care unit (SICU) nurses. Intervention: A new electronic handoff tool was developed for the Epic electronic health record (EHR) to provide SICU nurses with patient information (name, age, allergies), procedure and diagnosis, intubation status, reversal status, medications administered and last doses, and the last set of vital signs taken in the OR prior to patient transfer to SICU. Methods: The new electronic tool was implemented in a 12-bed SICU at Ruby Memorial Hospital. Data collection in the form of Likert-scale surveys took place over a period of six months and was analyzed for statistical significance. Results: There was significant improvement in both SICU nurse and anesthesia provider satisfaction with handoff with the addition of the electronic handoff tool. Conclusion: Use of an electronic handoff tool in addition to bedside verbal report improves provider satisfaction with handoff. This intervention would be easily expandable to other units in the hospital.

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