Improving Nurses’ Hand-off Process on Oncology Setting Using Lean Management Principles

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

1 Nurse Supervisor, Quality and Patient Safety, Department of Nursing, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan.

2 Nurse Manager, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan.

3 Charge Nurse, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan.

Abstract

Background: Patients in oncology setting are struggling with the complexed disease, and long and intensive
treatment options. This increase the need of patients for more coordination and effective hand-off between health
providers including nurses. Aims: The main aim of this project is to improve the effectiveness of hand-off between nurses
in the oncology setting using lean management principles. Methods: One group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental
design was conducted at King Hussain Cancer Center during quarter two to quarter four in 2017. The project was
conducted using the lean tools including root cause analysis, redesigning the hand-off process; using structured tools,
and standardization of the hand-off process. Results: The finding of this project showed a significant decreasing in the
hand-off duration and the incidence of events related to nursing practice deviation in post-intervention. Moreover, the
results showed that the nurse satisfaction score was improved. However, there is a little difference in patient satisfaction
results between two quarters for overall satisfaction and per each domain. Conclusion: The project approved that
the use of structured tools, safety briefing, and standardized hand-off process play important role in improving the
effectiveness of the hand-off process.

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