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Best Practice Guidelines: Collaborative Practice Among Nursing Teams

Journal of the Month

The Journal of the Month has really worked out to be a 'Journal of the Season' however, this may be an article that can actually help us out. Let me know what you think. It is from the Joint Commision Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, and is about the SBAR tool.
Check it out HERE!

ARTICLE AT A GLANCE
Background: The importance of sharing a common
mental model in communication prompted efforts to
spread the use of the SBAR (Situation, Background,
Assessment, and Recommendation) tool at OSF St.
Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington, Illinois.
Case Study: An elderly patient was on warfarin sodium
(Coumadin) 2.5 mg daily. The nurse received a call
from the lab regarding an elevated international normalized
ratio (INR) but did not write down the results
(she was providing care to another patient). On the
basis of the previous lab cumulative summary, the
physician increased the warfarin dose for the patient; a
dangerously high INR resulted.
Actions Taken: The medical center initiated a collaborative
to implement the use of the SBAR communication
tool. Education was incorporated into team
resource management training and general orientation.
Tools included SBAR pocket cards for clinicians and
laminated SBAR “cheat sheets” posted at each phone.
SBAR became the communication methodology from
leadership to the microsystem in all forms of reporting.
Discussion: Staff adapted quickly to the use of SBAR,
although hesitancy was noted in providing the “recommendation”
to physicians. Medical staff were encouraged
to listen for the SBAR components and encourage staff to
share their recommendation if not initially provided.

Journal Club-Artical #1

One thing I've realized since being in the role of Clinical Educator, is that at every interview that is held with potential new staff, one of the questions is "What have you done in the past two years to keep yourself current in your practice?" The correct responses include things such as, working on degree, attending conferences, workshops and in-services, and reading professional journals.

It got me thinking that one thing I'd like to promote on this blog is starting up a journal club. So, here's how it works: read the article and post a comment about what you agree/disagree with, your thoughts of how it affects your practice, did you like the article, is it relevant etc. If you come across an article that you'd like to share with the group, please forward it to me, and it will be posted.

Here is our first article. Let's see if we can get a discussion going!

NB: being a member of a Journal Club can be added to your resume!

What Counts as Evidence in Evidence-Based Practice?