Improving nurses' hand-offprocess on oncology setting using lean management principles

Abstract

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