Progress Appraisal: Nurse Hand-off Communication in Critical Care Unit

This report presents a progress appraisal of a student's practicum project focusing on nurse hand-off communication within a critical care unit. The student investigated the significance of hand-off reports in ensuring patient safety and quality care, emphasizing the transfer of accountability between nurses during shift changes. The report details the importance of interdisciplinary communication and accurate patient record documentation. Challenges included persuading colleagues to adopt mandatory hand-off reports and adhering to guidelines. Technological interventions were suggested as potential solutions. The student also highlights the need for allied health specialties to follow nursing handovers more diligently. The report references relevant literature supporting the integration of hand-off communication in nursing curricula and clinical practice, including studies on electronic record reviews and practice changes.

Running head: PROGRESS APPRAISAL
Progress Appraisal
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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PROGRESS APPRAISAL
As part of my practicum professional development, I took up the project of Nurse’s hand-
off communication within the clinical setting of practicum care in the critical care unit. During
my professional pursuit, I resorted to gaining information regarding the significance of nurse’s
hand-off communication in rendering safe and quality care services to the patient. Right from the
initial hour in posting, I tried to clarify my stand regarding the correct usage of hand-off report
for safeguarding the condition of patients and maintaining a specific decorum in providing
sufficient care to the healthcare service recipient. A hand-off report is considered usually as an
official document by virtue of which both the accountability and responsibility of care is
transferred from one nurse to the other one at change of shift. As a nursing leader-manager I
fathomed the utility of understanding the purpose of such report to safeguard the health and
safety of the patient in addition to rendering scope of improvement in professional practice.
Interdisciplinary communication among the members of the healthcare team has been considered
vital to harbor positive outcomes (Serksnys, Nanchal & Fletcher, 2017). I tried to convince my
colleagues to work in alliance with the motive of attaining this objective of prioritizing the safety
of patients admitted in critical care unit. I came to acknowledge the working relationship
between the nurse and the physician in deriving optimal outcomes. I learnt about accurately
documenting the patient records to aid in nursing assessment and subsequent care planning.
Literature has supported the integration of hand-off communication as part of the undergraduate
nursing curriculum to aid in nursing practice (Gore et al., 2015). Clinical skills prerequisite must
address to this aspect so that professional approach may be maintained in performing the
assigned duties as applicable in critical care unit. In this context, I am hopeful of attaining my
objectives by collaborating with my colleagues. In course of my clinical placement, I have
encountered a couple of challenges that broadened my knowledge horizon regarding the role of

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PROGRESS APPRAISAL
hand-off report in critical care unit. Convincing the attending nurses regarding the mandatory use
of this report was quite a challenging task as it involved persuading and educating them to the
extent so that the objectives may be well fulfilled. Conforming to the guidelines as laid down by
the concerned authority with respect to the nursing hand-off report may be cited as a brimming
challenge that might hinder the progress of care in critical unit. In order to address these
challenges, technological interventions might offer plausible resolutions. Studies have confirmed
on evaluating and analyzing the implementation related to practice changes that might be of
effect to the implementation of practice changes (Wade,2015). Further, on spending time with
my preceptor I came to know a lot pertaining to the nursing hand-off report as I became aware
that it is even more necessary to allied health specialties to follow the nursing handovers more
diligently so that patients admitted in critical care units may receive optimal care. Review of
electronic records is also vital to maintain the practice and perception of handovers among nurses
and residents in the clinical setting (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2015).

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PROGRESS APPRAISAL
References
Gore, A., Leasure, A. R., Carithers, C., & Miller, B. (2015). Integrating hand-off communication
into undergraduate nursing clinical courses. Journal of Nursing Education and
Practice, 5(4), 70.
Mukhopadhyay, A., Leong, B. S., Lua, A., Aroos, R., Wong, J. J., Koh, N., ... & Kowitlawakul,
Y. (2015). Differences in the handover process and perception between nurses and
residents in a critical care setting. Journal of clinical nursing, 24(5-6), 778-785.
Serksnys, D., Nanchal, R., & Fletcher, K. E. (2017). Opportunities for interprofessional input
into nurse and physician hand-off communication. Journal of critical care, 38, 47-51.
Wade, D. (2015). Hand-off Communication: Implementation of an Electronic Shift Report to
Improve Patient and Nurse Satisfaction.