Bedside Shift Report

Introduction

In our current health care centers, there have been many efforts to improve patient care. One of these efforts has been achieved through focusing on patient-centered care, which can be achieved through Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competency. These competencies are essential when nurses are exchanging vital information concerning the patient, especially between the off-going and the on-coming nurses. This is particularly defined as a bedside shift report. The relevance of this report is to ensure that nurses offer safe continuity of care, delivering the best clinical practice. It is due to this need that the QSEN institution seeks to train nurses ensuring that they acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs), which are needed to improve the quality and safety of healthcare systems (QSEN Competencies, 2021). The primary area of concern is improving the quality and safety of patients’ care, through embracing patient-centered care, which has been possible through the implementation of the bedside shift nurses report.

In the nursing operation, information about the patients is very critical. This is an aspect that is deployed in the nursing department to exchange information between the off-going and the on-coming nurses, highlighting the patients’ details, such as medical situation, background, care plan, and treatment, to ensure effective continuity of care and best clinical practices (Dorvil, 2018). It is due to this reason that the QSEN institution, offers training on the quality of services needed by nurses to address the patients' needs. The major training is on the three competencies which include knowledge, skills, and attitudes to ensure effective patient-centered care. One of the most critical aspects in dealing with patients is knowledge, which entails understanding various dimensions associated with patients’ health conditions. Some essential information includes patient information, values, preferences, information, communication, and education. In addition, knowledge entails the description of cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds, which affect the nature of services offered to clients (QSEN Competencies, 2021). More so, get a clear understanding of concepts such as suffering and pain and safety methods that can ensure effective health care and improve the involvement of the patients and the family in the treatment process. More importantly, the nurses need adequate information concerning limits and boundaries, taking keen considerations of the ethical and legal implications.

Additionally, there is a need to acquire adequate skills, which help implement care and evaluate care. Nurses also need to show many skills in communication, revealing sensitivity, and respect for diversity in human experiences. A competent nurse should actively engage patients, provide access to resources, assess their levels of communication skills, and build consensus. It is always important to resolve conflicts and ensure the provision of the needed care. Moreover, attitude is another critical aspect that needs to be portrayed by a nurse; this is a value that helps seeing health care situations through patients’ eyes (Boswell et al., 2021). Through this value, patients benefit from respect and encouragement. Also, this value is the opportunity where all aspects of humanity are respected. Additionally, due to attitude, nurses appreciate shared decisions, empowering patients and families, keeping continuous communication even during conflicts.

Nurses are mandated with critical positions in the health care systems to provide, monitor, and manage the services they deliver to their patients. The QSEN initiative was launched to redefine nursing education quality and safety competencies (Cengiz & Yoder, 2020). This was an initiative to ensure that graduating nurses have full competencies and meet the KSAs. These skills were supposed to be built from the grassroots, ensuring they are incorporated into nursing orientation, and continuous tests for the competencies gained (James et al., 2017). This was the only sure way to ensure increased patient safety knowledge and thus more quality services. These are the skills needed to fully embrace the evidence-based practice in nursing and improve the quality of services.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) on nursing care comprises the best evidence, patients' preferences, and nurses’ expertise. Since the introduction of EBP in the 1970s, there has been a positive impact on the quality of services offered to the patients. The EBP has led to improved safety and outcomes on patients, to the extent that the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) has shown concern. This organization seeks to appraise and integrate evidence as essential for nurse preparation (Boswell et al., 2021). Precisely, these competencies, as highlighted for pre-licensure nurses in QSEN institute competencies, entail knowledge, skills, and attitudes for EBP and meeting nurse needs. These are the essentials when providing safe and quality patient-centered care.

Conclusion

In conclusion, patient-centered care is one of the critical values that is needed in nursing. This entails checking on patients’ needs to ensure that they are met individually, meeting their preferences, culture, and other social background needs. This has been achieved by the bedside shift report, which is trained by the QSEN institution. The institution highlights competencies useful in ensuring nurses acquire the right knowledge, skills, and competence to address the current patients’ needs and those in the future. This is an assurance from the EBP, highlighting the importance of promoting patient-centered care and its impacts on improving the quality and outcomes of health care services.

 

References

Boswell, C., Sanchez, L., & Powers, R. (2021). QSEN competencies: How well are we doing?. Nursing Management, 52(4), 49-53.

Cengiz, A., & Yoder, L. H. (2020). Assessing nursing students’ perceptions of the QSEN competencies: a systematic review of the literature with implications for academic programs. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 17(4), 275-282.

Dorvil, B. (2018). The secrets to successful nurse bedside shift report implementation and sustainability. Nursing management, 49(6), 20.

James, D. H., Patrician, P. A., & Miltner, R. S. (2017). Testing for Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN): Reflections from using QSEN as a framework for RN orientation. Journal for nurses in professional development, 33(4), 180-184.

QSEN Competencies. (2021). Quality and Safety Education for Nurses: Patient-Centered Care. Retrieved from: https://qsen.org/competencies/pre-licensure-ksas/