The best health professionals are always looking for strategies and tactics to help them improve the patient care experience. And the best strategies and tactics are a win not only for patients but also for the clinicians who deliver patient care.
Communication in nursing is a central element of the healthcare system. When done right, everybody wins. The quality of communication between nurses and the entire patient care team impacts not only patient outcomes and the overall patient experience but also many other metrics. This blog will discuss the importance of effective communication in nursing and dive into three specific examples where effective communication results in better patient care.
Why is effective communication important in nursing?
What have we learned about the link between communication and patient outcomes?
The Joint Commission published seven National Patient Safety Goals in 2017. Goal #2 was to “improve staff communication.”
Certainly, they were aware of these Joint Commission findings:
“Ineffective hand-off communication is recognized as a critical patient safety problem in health care; in fact, an estimated 80% of serious medical errors involve miscommunication between caregivers during the transfer of patients. The hand-off process involves ‘senders,’ those caregivers transmitting patient information and transitioning the care of a patient to the next clinician, and “receivers,” those caregivers who accept the patient information and care of that patient. In addition to causing patient harm, defective hand-offs can lead to delays in treatment, inappropriate treatment, and increased length of stay in the hospital.”
“There is a well-established link between team communication, worker morale, and patient safety. Poor team communication has been directly linked to preventable medical errors, high nurse turnover rates, and low morale. Poor team communication has been cited as the number one cause of unnecessary patient deaths related to medical error since the 1990s.” – citing To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System from the Institute of Medicine
The Role of Clinical Communication & Collaboration Technology in Nurse Communication
Gartner uses the term Clinical Communication & Collaboration (CC&C) to describe technology-based systems that help fix communication problems. And over the past 10 years, we’ve seen rapid development and rollout of hardware and software systems that support communications and improve the above metrics.
The typical CC&C system is a mobile phone and a secure, HIPAA-compliant, feature-rich texting system. This one device and user interface replaces outdated and inefficient processes built around faxes, voicemail, pagers, and paper notes and forms.
This system not only lets you send a secure message to any other clinician but also tells you when they’ve read it. No more wondering if the message got through. A big win for communication in nursing.
And keeping track of Care Team members? No problem. The app automatically swaps clinicians in and out as shifts change. Nurses don’t have to know who’s on the floor. The app knows, and always reaches the right person right away. Another big win for communication in nursing.
Furthermore, best-in-class CC&C apps integrate with your EHR, scheduling, nurse call, lab, and radiology systems. They display images from your PACS, which means you can view a radiology image wherever you are. There’s no need to race to a computer and log in to the system. And one CC&C system can even boast 99% uptime and HITRUST CSF certification.
These CC&C systems bring fundamental shifts to how nurses communicate with health professionals, and consequently to patient care and patient outcomes.
But enough background. At this point, we’ve set the stage. It’s time to open the curtain and experience the drama of CC&C solutions in action!
3 Examples of Effective Communication in Nursing
Example #1
Patty, the patient, is lying in her hospital bed, not feeling so great. She presses the nurse call button.
Nancy, the nurse, is alerted by her mobile device immediately. She takes the first opportunity to check in on Patty.
Patty describes what she’s feeling, and after Nancy assesses Patty’s vitals and labs, she suspects sepsis. She pulls out her cell phone and sends a message to the hospital’s Sepsis Response Team. Nancy doesn’t know who these clinicians are … but her CC&C app does.
The app notifies each clinician currently staffing the Sepsis Response Team and automatically assigns them appropriate role-based tasks.
Uh oh. The charge nurse can tell the Intensivist hasn’t responded yet, so she makes a VoIP voice & video call directly from the app to reach the Intensivist. Now the entire team is engaged, and Patty is getting the appropriate treatment.
Then, six hours after Patty’s treatment, the app’s EHR integration alerts the current members of the Sepsis Response Team to revisit Patty. Nancy redraws Patty’s lactate and continues to monitor and assess the patient.
What’s one way the CC&C system brings better communication in nursing and improves patient care?
Nancy’s device is always with her, and all relevant information is always at her fingertips. She doesn’t need to walk to a computer and log in to the EHR. She doesn’t need to look up members of the Sepsis Response Team. She doesn’t need to call or page or hunt down any of them. Nancy loses no time during a serious patient event where every minute counts.
Example #2
It’s discharge day for Patty, and she’s eager to go home. She presses the call button to ask when she’ll be discharged.
An alert goes off on Nevin, the nurse’s smartphone. As soon as he has a moment, he checks in on Patty.
Patty remembers the discharge process from a previous stay at another hospital. She expects a series of delays, but at least wants to get the process going. She hopes it won’t take six hours like last time.
But Patty’s in for a happy surprise. Because Nevin has already been involved with all the collaborative members of the discharge team via the CC&C platform, he can tell her she’s scheduled for discharge within two hours without leaving the room.
And at about the same time in another part of the building, Phyllis, the physician, is using a bedside voice assistant to initiate the discharge process. Phyllis’ action alerts the entire Discharge Team and sets up everyone’s task list. Phyllis, the physician, is also part of the discharge team, reconciling medications for discharge and working with the discharge team on all remaining tasks.
After all Discharge Team members have finished their tasks, Transport and EVS are pulled into the discharge communication to ensure a timely discharge and room turnover.
What’s one way the CC&C system brings better communication in nursing and improves patient care?
Nevin can communicate with the entire Discharge Team with minimal messages and delays. He monitors their progress, and if there’s a problem, he can contact the right people right away. The discharge process is highly efficient. Faster discharges greatly improve patient length of stay.
Example #3
Patty got home safely and is recovering well. But four days later, she notices her husband, Steve, starts slurring his speech. Then he loses mobility in his right arm and leg.
Patty and Steve are having a really bad week.
Patty recognizes the signs of a stroke and calls 911 right away. Emma, the EMT, arrives 12 minutes later.
After a quick assessment, Emma confirms Steve is having a stroke. Emma opens the CC&C app on her cell phone and activates the Stroke Team, providing pertinent details. Eddie, the ED Charge Nurse at the local hospital, reads the Stroke Code and short clinical story from Emma, then forwards the message to the Trauma Team.
Steve arrives at the ED, where the Trauma Team had already mobilized for his arrival. The ED physician is alerted and reassesses Steve for tPA.
Steve heads off for a STAT CT, and the radiologist confirms ischemic stroke. The ED physician orders tPA and the order is received by Pharmacy within seconds. Minutes later, an ED nurse is injecting the tPA.
What’s one way the CC&C system brings better communication in nursing and improves patient care?
Because the EMT has access to the hospital’s CC&C system, Eddie the ED Charge Nurse is aware of Steve’s stroke before Steve even arrives at the hospital. Emma organizes the Stroke Team so they’re ready to begin treating Steve as soon as he arrives. Stroke patients bypass the ED for direct CT scans and faster door-to-needle patient care in an extremely time-sensitive treatment protocol.
Each of these three examples demonstrates how Clinical Communication & Collaboration solutions support the definition and goals of effective communication in nursing.
We’ve laid out the big picture. We defined effective communication in the context of nursing, and we saw three ways Clinical Communication & Collaboration systems improve communication in nursing by helping nurses do their jobs faster, better, and with less effort. We’ve seen how they eliminate barriers to effective communication.
As you consider the benefits of CC&C solutions, you may wonder if it’s worth it to move closer and closer to the vision of full CC&C implementation.
Here’s the good news: There’s no financial cost for learning more. Learn how TigerConnect can improve clinical workflows at your healthcare organization.
Ryan Bush is a Clinical Nurse Consultant at TigerConnect with over 14 years of experience in a variety of healthcare roles including bedside nurse, clinical applications analyst and most recently a manager of nursing informatics for the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. Ryan holds a Masters and board certification in the field of Nursing Informatics.
