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?
We use SBAR forms as well, but not in the ways previously described in this thread. On our 23-bed auxiliary LTC unit we have about 5 RNs who work regularly in PPT positions, so when a "newer" RN comes on (whether he/she is "new" as a nurse or just to our unit) these forms have been more like a "help sheet", providing guidelines for communication processes. The incidence of acute episodes on LTC is increasing, and so when the pace of your day suddenly shifts into high gear it can leave you a spinning--the SBAR forms serve as the "ABCs" of calling a doc sometimes. We don't actually file them anywhere, though...that would be a lot of double charting, and I can't imagine any manager having the time to audit them anyway...
SBAR forms are not normally made a part of the client's chart, they are simply to ensure that a thorough report is given and nothing is missed/forgotten by the receiving nurse; which means they can't really be made a legal issue if it comes to that. It sounds like your "interim, overpaid mercenary" manager is collecting the forms for his/her own purposes, perhaps to make sure that this newly-implemented reporting method is being utilized correctly...? I would bet that once the manager is certain that SBAR is being used correctly and consistently during hand-off, she will no longer require these forms to be turned in.
As for your "paranoia," I would point out that SBAR has become one of the standards implemented to help improve patient safety as well as employee satisfaction; The idea is, if you give report the same way every time, you know and the listener knows you will cover all the necessary points. Look at it this way: the "SBAR" reporting method is used at all of the top-rated hospitals (i.e., Magnet-designated) for a reason; So, roll with it, you may like it. Resisting this particular change won't help you. You only have something to worry about if you currently give a sub-standard report. If this is the case, you'll have to learn to do differently. Anyway, hope this helps. Good luck!
Scrabbler
38 Posts
We use SBAR forms as well, but not in the ways previously described in this thread. On our 23-bed auxiliary LTC unit we have about 5 RNs who work regularly in PPT positions, so when a "newer" RN comes on (whether he/she is "new" as a nurse or just to our unit) these forms have been more like a "help sheet", providing guidelines for communication processes. The incidence of acute episodes on LTC is increasing, and so when the pace of your day suddenly shifts into high gear it can leave you a spinning--the SBAR forms serve as the "ABCs" of calling a doc sometimes. We don't actually file them anywhere, though...that would be a lot of double charting, and I can't imagine any manager having the time to audit them anyway...