SBAR tool-- new requirement for report and calling MDs, is my paranoia justified?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I just found out about yet another new implementation that will be instituted at our hospital, which is an SBAR process form. We will be required to fill out one of these forms whenever we call a doctor, give report to another nurse, etc. It's supposed to be a valuable tool to guide us towards better communications between healthcare workers.

Here's the kicker though. We will be required to save all these forms, which are supposed to help us organize our communications. Our unit manager (an interim, overpaid mercenary if you ask me) will have a book where we are to place all our SBAR forms that we fill out for all communications, which will be saved.

I'm highly suspicious that these will be the way the hospital will A)target nurses they don't like for disciplinary action and dismissal and B)divert legal liability for errors on to the nursing staff.

Am I just being paranoid or are my fears well founded?

Incidentally, SBAR stands for

Situation

Background

Assessment

Recommendation

Up Vote Up Vote ×

i think it sounds like a blessing in disguise.

i love documentation.

it protects me, when written well.:up:

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

If you look at the links below this thread to other SBAR threads, it sounds as if these have proven cumbersome and not as useful as they were cracked up to be.

test

Up Vote Up Vote ×

SBAR is nice in theory, but not so much in reality. We were given papers to use, and we're to spout "SBAR format" when asked by Joint Commission how we communicate, but the papers were a tool to use, not something kept. I'd be leary of having even more paperwork to do that's being kept. It's more double documenting, leaving you at risk of writing something here but not there, which always looks iffy when something goes to court.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.
I just found out about yet another new implementation that will be instituted at our hospital, which is an SBAR process form. We will be required to fill out one of these forms whenever we call a doctor, give report to another nurse, etc. It's supposed to be a valuable tool to guide us towards better communications between healthcare workers.

Here's the kicker though. We will be required to save all these forms, which are supposed to help us organize our communications. Our unit manager (an interim, overpaid mercenary if you ask me) will have a book where we are to place all our SBAR forms that we fill out for all communications, which will be saved.

I'm highly suspicious that these will be the way the hospital will A)target nurses they don't like for disciplinary action and dismissal and B)divert legal liability for errors on to the nursing staff.

Am I just being paranoid or are my fears well founded?

Incidentally, SBAR stands for

Situation

Background

Assessment

Recommendation

We are supposed to use this format where I work too, although it isn't required that we actually fill out a paper form. I quickly found that the doctors, at least where I work, aren't interested in the background portion, and don't like recommendations that are too specific. They interrupt during the background portion, and it is better to ask for a "sleep aid" or "something else for pain" than to ask for a specific med.

It was helpful to me as a new grad, to help me think about what information I needed to have at hand, but it is not effective/used as intended in practice where I work.

That said, if your hospital's "corporate culture" is different, then you may not have the same experience I did.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med-surg 5 years geriatrics 12 years.

While I agree it's a PIA I wonder what will happen to the "saved " forms. Because of JCQHO we had to go thru orders at night and list all unacceptable abbreviations and who made them etc. Spent lots of time writing down the offending MDs. We put them in a notebook and once it was full we noticed that no one had ever done anything with them. We asked our supervisor and she said to hold off on reviewing until she found out more....after 3 months she threw them out and nothing more on the subject.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

Thanks for the feedback. I have a feeling no one will have time to go through these forms. She said she wants one filled out every time we call an MD or hand off report.

My hospital is jumping on the band wagon of every hospital gimmick known to man in the last year. It's getting ridiculous all the inservices. We started hourly rounding sheets for Med/Surg, we will start this complicated computer charting this month, now this SBAR. We got an Omnicell system last year. I suppose the next change will be scanning the meds. I hear that is a PITA.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Utilization Management.

I personally like the SBAR format. It cues us as to what the doc wants to hear, and it cues the docs on what to expect. Finally, we nurses are encouraged to provide recommendations for the patient's treatment.

Our unit was having us write down everything just to make sure that people were doing it, and that it was being used correctly and appropriately.

I think that's probably what your manager is trying to assess.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

The format doesn't bother me, but requiring turning in SBAR sheets at the end of the shift makes me feel like I'm being treated like a school girl.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We use the SBAR tool as well. The SBAR form is actually a big sticker that we complete and place on MD progress notes on the chart. I'm not fond of SBAR, as I normally do communicate like that with an MD anyway, and it seems like a way to keep the residents in a teaching facility on top of what they said. I know that JCAHO mandates it, but I'm just not keen on it, particularly the sticker on the chart thing.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Utilization Management.
We use the SBAR tool as well. The SBAR form is actually a big sticker that we complete and place on MD progress notes on the chart. I'm not fond of SBAR, as I normally do communicate like that with an MD anyway, and it seems like a way to keep the residents in a teaching facility on top of what they said. I know that JCAHO mandates it, but I'm just not keen on it, particularly the sticker on the chart thing.

Sticker in the chart? Then doesn't it suddenly become part of the legal document?

Not sure I'd be too fond of that idea, since you're already documenting the MD call in the Nursing Progress notes.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Perinatal, Education.

Sorry to veer off topic, but, yes, the bar code med thing is a PITA! I am a registry OB nurse and am just shocked at how different all the hospitals I go to are--even though they are all within a 20 mile radius and are all OB (L&D and PP). Anyway, at one hospital I have to lug in a huge computer station on wheels in order to give a PP women a Motrin 600 for pain of 3/10 because of bar codes. I guess I can't be trusted as a licensed person with heavy duty drugs like that! (Sarcasm alert--I know the bar code system is meant for safety!)

But at other hospitals I can push narcotics with a hand written verbal order and record it on a hand written MAR. I don't know why some hospitals go overboard and others don't modernize until they're threatened with shutdown--probably $$ I suppose. One thing I can tell you is that regardless of the facility and the quality of surroundings or even MDs, good care is given by good nurses. Period. End of story.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment