Nursing Process Toolkit
A toolkit designed to provide resources to support quality nursing care. The kit offers tools that can be used for performance improvement and risk assessment of critical nursing processes.Patient Safety Performance Improvement Tools
Measuring processes related to patient safety is important in determing the effectiveness of the processes. This section contains tools that can be used to measure effectiveness of a variety of processes using different methods such as nursing accountability and risk assessment.
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Unit-Based Nursing Scorecard
Sample score card to present unit based performance improvement indicators.
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Quarterly Nursing Scorecard
Sample quarterly score card to display performance improvement results on a quarterly basis.
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Nursing Responsibility Risk Assessment
A risk assessment tool to evaluate processes that require specific training and supervision by a registered nurse.
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Discharge Process Risk Assessment
A risk assessment tool to evaluate the current discharge process in place as it compares to best practices and regulations.
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Nurse Burnout Podcast
Nurse Burnout compromises patient care and the health of an employee. Burnout is a type of human factor causation that can be associated with many adverse events such as higher mortality rates and medical errors. Getting a handle on nurse burnout and implementing changes to prevent the problem is a focus for highly reliable organizations.
Listen to our podcast to learn more about behaviors that occur with burnout and simple things leaders can do to prevent it from occurring.
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Preceptor Delegation Tool
A step-by-step checklist for the preceptor to delegate tasks to the preceptee.
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AHRQ - Patient Safety Measure Tools and Resources
AHRQ provides multiple patient safety resources for healthcare organizations to utilize for process improvement programs.
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National Quality Forum - Serious Reportable Events
The NQF provides information on reporting events that are serious, preventable and harmful to patients, which can assist healthcare organizations in the patient safety performance improvement process.
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Medications at Transitions and Clinical Handoffs (Match) Toolkit for Medication Reconciliation
Medication reconciliation can affect patient safety due to the complexity of the process. This tool provides multiple resources for improving your organization's medication reconciliation process.
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The Joint Commission - 2020 National Patient Safety Goals
Joint Commission provides national patient safety goals each year that are based on emerging patient safety issues that can affect patients in the following areas: ambulatory care, behavioral health, criticial access hospitals, home care, acute care hospitals, laboratories and office-based surgery centers.
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Pain Assessment and Documentation Tool
A sample tool to record and facilitate ongoing evaluation of a patient’s pain and documentation of pain management.
Patient Safety Program Assessment Tools
Evaluating the current patient safety program is a good way to identify gaps between current practice and best practices. Below are multiple tools that can be used to evaluate the current state of patient safety in your organization against best practices.
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AHRQ - The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool and User's Guide
The AHRQ provides a tool to evaluate and assess the understanding of patient educational materials.
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Institute of Healthcare Improvement - Patient Safety Self-Assessment Tool
IHI provides assessment tools for patient safety process improvement measures.
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U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs - Patient Safety Assessment Tool (PSAT)
The VA Center for Patient Safety provides an assessment tool to assist healthcare organizations in conducting an objective assessment of their patient safety processes and program.
Nursing Rounding Tools
Rounding is an effective patient safety and satisfaction tool, but it can be a daunting task to achieve. Provided in this section are tools to help develop rounding processes that provide meaningful information to inform patient care.
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Readiness Rounds: 9 Approaches to Patient Satisfaction Real Time
Tools and tactics to improve patient satisfaction in your organization.
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University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center: Purposeful Hourly Rounding
Provides a step-by-step approach to implementing purposeful hourly rounding.
Nursing Communication Tools
Communication breakdowns can be a root cause in many adverse events in healthcare. Therefore, developing processes to improve communication among staff is an important aspect of any patient safety program. Tools are provided in this section to help improve communication at critical transfers of patient care.
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Sample Bedside Shift Report Letter
Provides verbiage that can be given to patients upon their admission to your healthcare organization explaining the bedside shift report process.
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Bedside Shift Report Guidelines and Key Words
Guidelines for the bedside shift report process can increase patient safety and improve quality of care.
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Bedside Shift Report Tips
Tips to successfully hardwire bedside shift reports in your organization.
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Bedside Shift Report: Framework for Communication
A framework for communication between members of the healthcare team during bedside shift report.
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Article: Bedside Shift Report Improves Patient Safety and Nurse Accountability
This article provides evidence-based practices regarding how bedside shift report improves patient safety.
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SBAR Communication Tool
Guidelines for how to communicate patient information to the physician in a succinct and effective format.
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Patient Ticket to Ride
A template for your organization that provides immediate critical patient safety information to accompany patients leaving the unit.
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Handoffs in the Postoperative Anesthesia Care Unit: Use of a Checklist for Transfer of Care
Provides information regarding the need to have a standardized process for handoffs in the PACU patient care area.