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Developing and Implementing an Ambulatory Postanesthesia Care Unit Hand-Off Tool
1HackensackMeridian University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ.
Purpose:
The purpose of this research study was to improve communication and reduce critical information loss between the ambulatory postanesthesia care unit (PACU) and ambulatory surgical center (ASC) nurses by developing, piloting, and evaluating a hand-off communication tool.
Design:
Descriptive study.
Methods:
This pilot study was conducted in an outpatient surgery unit located at a large Magnet university hospital in New Jersey. Twenty ASC registered nurses (RNs) evaluated the hand-off tool developed for this study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data from the 20 ASC RNs using three Likert-scale questions.
Findings:
Three Likert-style questions guided the rating of this tool. Using correlation analysis, the results support that the tool may be perceived as an instrument that was simultaneously easy to use, helpful, and communicated relevant patient data. The calculation of the reliability coefficient was 0.89.
Conclusions:
This standardized hand-off tool relayed the pertinent and relevant patient data needed to support handoff from the ambulatory PACU to the ASC. Only ASC RNs rated the tool in this study. A planned second phase will evaluate PACU nurse's perception of the tool.
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