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

Abstract

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