Podium Presentation: Nursing Handoff Education from Faculty and Nurse Perspectives

Location

Virtual Conference

Start Date

27-6-2022 2:40 PM

End Date

27-6-2022 3:50 PM

Keywords:

texas

Description

Background/Introduction

Nursing handoff plays a pivotal role in patients' continuity of care, quality assurance, and safety. The Joint Commission's 2022 Hospital National Patient Safety Goals include improving staff communication. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials also comprises the competency of evaluating communication pathways and tools among health care team members to facilitate continuity of care and improved team-based interactions. The importance of handoff education in nursing programs is recognized by research showing that handoff failures have been implicated in near misses and adverse events in seven out of eight novice nurses. Although many handoff studies exist, few studies addressed handoff education from nursing faculty perspectives.

Purpose/Aim

This study aimed to 1) identify experiences and challenges in handoff education among nursing faculty and 2) describe the need for improvements in nursing handoff training.

Methods/Approach

A descriptive qualitative study was conducted with 27 nursing faculty. Participants were recruited via Facebook, LinkedIn, emails, and snowball sampling. Individual interviews with semi-structured questions were undertaken via Zoom or by phone. Descriptive content analysis was performed using NVivo 12.

Results

Results from the faculty interviews included a total of two main themes and five subthemes. Two main themes are a) barriers to teaching handoff and b) faculty desire to improve handoff education. The subthemes for barriers to teaching handoff include: 1) COVID-19, 2) incompetency/comfortability, and 3) standardization. The subthemes for faculty desire to improve handoff education includes 1) products and tools for handoff instruction and practice and 2) handoff evaluating pedagogies. Faculty reported that the handoff curriculum remained inconsistent regarding content focus, formats, tools, and evaluation. Faculty desired consistent handoff instruction, tools matched with clinic handoff templates, and evaluation methods to track student progress. Faculty also desire innovative handoff tools that integrate into existing teaching technologies that facilitate improved teaching approaches and student competency development.

Conclusions

It is critical to structure effective handoff education to enhance students' nursing handoff competency using consistent, handoff instruction and tools. Handoff communication remains inconsistent regarding focus, formats, tools, and evaluation.

Implications for Practice

Consistent handoff instruction is needed in academic settings. Versatile tools that are matched with academic and clinical learning experiences are needed. Innovative handoff tools may create opportunities to educate and evaluate nursing students' handoff competency development so to improve their transition to practice.

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Jun 27th, 2:40 PM Jun 27th, 3:50 PM

Podium Presentation: Nursing Handoff Education from Faculty and Nurse Perspectives

Virtual Conference

Background/Introduction

Nursing handoff plays a pivotal role in patients' continuity of care, quality assurance, and safety. The Joint Commission's 2022 Hospital National Patient Safety Goals include improving staff communication. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials also comprises the competency of evaluating communication pathways and tools among health care team members to facilitate continuity of care and improved team-based interactions. The importance of handoff education in nursing programs is recognized by research showing that handoff failures have been implicated in near misses and adverse events in seven out of eight novice nurses. Although many handoff studies exist, few studies addressed handoff education from nursing faculty perspectives.

Purpose/Aim

This study aimed to 1) identify experiences and challenges in handoff education among nursing faculty and 2) describe the need for improvements in nursing handoff training.

Methods/Approach

A descriptive qualitative study was conducted with 27 nursing faculty. Participants were recruited via Facebook, LinkedIn, emails, and snowball sampling. Individual interviews with semi-structured questions were undertaken via Zoom or by phone. Descriptive content analysis was performed using NVivo 12.

Results

Results from the faculty interviews included a total of two main themes and five subthemes. Two main themes are a) barriers to teaching handoff and b) faculty desire to improve handoff education. The subthemes for barriers to teaching handoff include: 1) COVID-19, 2) incompetency/comfortability, and 3) standardization. The subthemes for faculty desire to improve handoff education includes 1) products and tools for handoff instruction and practice and 2) handoff evaluating pedagogies. Faculty reported that the handoff curriculum remained inconsistent regarding content focus, formats, tools, and evaluation. Faculty desired consistent handoff instruction, tools matched with clinic handoff templates, and evaluation methods to track student progress. Faculty also desire innovative handoff tools that integrate into existing teaching technologies that facilitate improved teaching approaches and student competency development.

Conclusions

It is critical to structure effective handoff education to enhance students' nursing handoff competency using consistent, handoff instruction and tools. Handoff communication remains inconsistent regarding focus, formats, tools, and evaluation.

Implications for Practice

Consistent handoff instruction is needed in academic settings. Versatile tools that are matched with academic and clinical learning experiences are needed. Innovative handoff tools may create opportunities to educate and evaluate nursing students' handoff competency development so to improve their transition to practice.