Patient participation in nursing bedside handover: A systematic mixed-methods review

The role of patients in the delivery of safe care in hospital: Study protocol

AIM

This paper outlines the protocol for a study aimed at exploring perspectives about the role of patients' in the delivery of safe care in hospital.

DESIGN

Qualitative exploratory study.

METHODS

Research Ethics Committee approval for this study was obtained in October 2018. The study will be conducted between February-April 2019 with data collected through focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews and will involve patients and healthcare professionals from hospitals in Tabriz. A descriptive qualitative approach will be adopted, and the data will be managed and analysed using MAXQDA 10 software.

DISCUSSION

The role of patients in furthering their own safety whilst in hospital cannot be underestimated and the results from this study can be used to support the development of practical strategies that address the delivery of safe hospital care and which involve patients and their caregivers.

Observations of nursing staff compliance to a checklist for person-centred handovers - a quality improvement project

Nursing shift‐to‐shift handovers are important as they impact the care quality indicators such as safety, patient satisfaction and continuity. However, nurses’ handovers have also been criticised and described as unstructured and ineffective. To improve the handovers and involve patients and their loved ones in the process, a person‐centred handover (PCH) model performed at bedside has been developed and tested at Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden. This study reports on the nursing staffs’ compliance to a checklist used for the newly introduced PCH model. A total of 43 PCH sessions were observed at two acute care wards, using a structured observation protocol. None of the observed handover sessions included all the 13 PCH checklist subcomponents. The checklist was used in 18 (44%) of the observed handover sessions. A statistically significant higher number of subcomponents were observed when the nurses used the PCH checklist (6.4 vs. 4.5 subcomponents, p < 0.05). The mean time spent on each PCH was 6 minutes. In 56% of the sessions, the patients were observed to actively participate in the handover. Overall, the nursing staffs’ compliance to the PCH checklist needs to be improved. The observations suggest that training on communication‐oriented tasks would be beneficial to establish a person‐centred handover process.

Patients experiences of bedside handover: findings from a meta-synthesis

BACKGROUND

Bedside shift reports have been recently recommended to ensure handovers. However, no evidence summarising studies designed to determine the qualitative approaches capable of better understanding patient experience have been published to date.

AIM

The aim of this study was to acquire a deeper understanding of the experiences of patients regarding bedside shift reports.

DATA SOURCES AND REVIEW METHODS

A systematic review of qualitative studies followed by a meta-synthesis method based upon Sandelowski's and Barroso's guidelines was performed. Four databases were systematically explored (PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and PsycINFO) without any limitation in time and up to the 31 August 2018. A total of 10 studies were included and evaluated in their methodological quality; then, a thematic synthesis was developed to synthetize the findings.

RESULTS

Three major themes reflect patients' experience regarding the bedside shift reports: (i) 'Being involved'; (ii) 'Being the centre of nursing care processes'; and (iii) 'Experiencing critical issues'. Patients are supportive of bedside shift reports as a right, as an opportunity to be involved, and of being in the centre of the nursing care process. By designing and implementing bedside shift reports, nurses also have an opportunity to increase patient safety and to provide concrete proof of the advancements achieved by the nursing profession in recent years.

CONCLUSIONS

The bedside shift reports experience has been little studied to date from the perspective of patients. According to the findings, implementation of the bedside shift reports should include providing education to nurses with regard to the preferences and expectations of patients, as well as the critical issues that they can experience during the bedside shift reports. Presenting the bedside shift reports method, asking patient consent, discussing potential critical issues and the degree of involvement preferred at hospital admission, is strongly recommended.

The impact of patient safety culture on handover in rural health facilities

BACKGROUND

Effective handover is crucial for patient safety. Rural health care organisations have particular challenges in relation to handover of information, placing them at higher risk of adverse events. Few studies have examined the relationship between handover and patient safety in rural contexts, particularly in Australia. This study aimed to explore the effect of handover on overall perceptions of patient safety and the effect of other patient safety dimensions on handover in a rural Australian setting.

METHODS

A cross-sectional online survey using The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was implemented across six rural Local Health Districts in NSW, Australia and resulted in 1587 respondents. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to account for the nested nature of the data. Models were developed to assess the effect of handover on patient safety perceptions, and the effect of other patient safety culture composites on handover variables. Open-ended questions about patient safety were inductively analyzed for themes. Quotes from the handover theme are presented.

RESULTS

All models were significant overall (p < .001), with explanatory powers ranging from 29 to 48%. Within rural health settings, effective handover is significantly related to patient safety perceptions (R2 = .29). A strong teamwork culture and management support culture was found to enhance effective handover of patient information (R2 = .47), and effective handover of personal responsibility (R2 = .37). A strong teamwork, management support, and open communication culture enhances handover of department accountability (R2 = .41). Despite the implementation of standardised communication tools and frameworks for handover, patient safety is compromised by inadequate coordination, poor or absent documentation between departments, between other health care agencies and in transfer of care from acute facilities to primary/community care.

CONCLUSION

Approaches to handover need to consider the particular challenges associated with rurality and strengthening elements found to be associated with increased safety, such as a strong teamwork and management culture and good reporting practices. Research is required to examine how communication at transition of care, particularly between facilities, is conducted and ways in which to enhance patients' and families' participation.

Patients' participation during treatment and care of breast cancer - a possibility and an imperative

PURPOSE

To explore how patients experience participation during treatment and care for breast cancer related to their understanding.

METHOD

Semi-structured individual interviews with 16 women diagnosed with breast cancer. Interpretative qualitative content analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Three main themes describe patient participation. Theme 1 Respectful and personal encounters illustrates how the treatment from health care staff contributed to feelings of being "seen" as a human, a basis for participation. Theme 2 Part-owner in decision making describes the women's varied wishes of participating in treatment decisions. Theme 3 Striving to manage treatment, care and self-care concerns the need to manage self-care for well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

Patient participation is both a possibility and an imperative. Patients must be recognized as unique human beings with varying needs of participation. Shared learning and understanding in dialogue with health care staff is a prerequisite. A novel approach where patients and health care staff are both partners and participants is presented.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATION

The results call for an initiation of training programs supporting pedagogical competence in staff and patients' learning in breast cancer care. Access to health care in the outpatient and the hospital settings is needed long term after treatment to support patient participation.

Is privacy a problem during bedside handovers? A practice-oriented discussion paper

Bedside handover is the delivery of the nurse-to-nurse handover at the patient’s bedside. Although increasingly used in nursing, nurses report many barriers for delivering the bedside handover. Among these barriers is the possibility of breaching the patient’s privacy. By referring to this concept, nurses add a legal and ethical dimension to the delivery of the bedside handover, making implementation of the method difficult or even impossible. In this discussion article, the concept of privacy during handovers is being discussed by use of observations, interviews with nurses, and interviews with patients. These findings are combined with international literature from a narrative review on the topic. We provide a practice-oriented answer in which two mutually exclusive possibilities are discussed. If bedside handover does pose problems concerning privacy, this situation is not unique in healthcare and measures can be taken during the bedside handover to safeguard the patient. If bedside handover does not pose problems concerning privacy, privacy is misused by nurses to hide professional uncertainties and/or a reluctance toward patient participation. Therefore, a possible breach of privacy—whether a justified argument or not—is not a reason for not delivering the bedside handover.

Perception of Caring Among Patients and Nurses

Background:

Empirical evidence supports the contention that implementing caring nurse behaviors results in improved patient experience; however, previous studies find differences between patient and nurse perceptions of caring.

Significance:

Good patient experience is positively related to desired clinical and financial outcomes. Nurse caring is a critical component in the patient experience.

Objective:

The purposes of this project were to evaluate the congruency between nurse and patient perceptions of nurse caring in a long-term acute care hospital and to determine how much patient perception of nurse caring changes over time.

Method:

The study employed mixed methods using a triangulation strategy in which quantitative data from patients and qualitative data from nurses were collected simultaneously and compared for interpretation.

Results:

Time affected patient perception of caring significantly. Patients and nurses disagreed about the extent to which nurses ask patients what they know about their illnesses, help them deal with bad feelings, and make them feel comfortable.

Conclusion:

Patients and nurses do not always agree about the quality of caring behaviors, but exposure to nurses over time positively affects patient perception of nurse caring.