Development and Effectiveness of a Standardized Hand-Off Program Using the SWITCH Tool for OR Nurses: A Randomized...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Surgical Safety
• Healthcare Communication

Background:

• Effective communication during patient hand-offs is critical in the operating room (OR) to ensure patient safety.
• Existing hand-off practices may lack standardization, potentially leading to information gaps and errors.
• The development of structured tools can improve the consistency and quality of nursing hand-offs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a standardized hand-off program using the SWITCH tool (surgical procedure, wet, instruments, tissue, counts, have you any questions?).
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the standardized hand-off program on OR staff perceptions of satisfaction, self-efficacy, surgical nursing performance, and communication competence.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial with a non-synchronized control group and pretest-posttest design was employed.
• The experimental group received training and utilized the SWITCH tool for four weeks.
• The control group continued with their usual hand-off methods without a standardized tool.

Main Results:

• The experimental group demonstrated significantly higher scores in self-reported hand-off satisfaction (P = .001).
• Significant improvements were observed in self-efficacy (P = .005) and surgical nursing performance (P < .001) in the intervention group.
• The standardized tool positively impacted key performance and perception metrics among OR nurses.

Conclusions:

• A standardized hand-off tool, such as the SWITCH program, can significantly enhance nurse perceptions of satisfaction.
• The implementation of structured hand-off protocols improves nurse self-efficacy and overall surgical nursing performance.
• Standardized hand-off procedures are a valuable strategy for improving OR communication and clinical outcomes.