An inter-professional approach to train and evaluate communication accuracy and completeness during the delivery of nurse-physician student handoffs

Abstract

Abstract Importance The I-PASS training bundle has been shown to improve communication errors during medical student and resident handoffs but has not been explored in the context of interprofessional care. Objective We examined the impact of an interprofessional I-PASS training on communication accuracy and completeness during the delivery of nurse-physician student handoffs. Design, participants, and setting A pre-post comparative design was used to evaluate the differential impact of training on sixty-three first year nursing students and sixty-nine first year medical students, as part of an interprofessional curricular intervention, at an integrated university campus. Intervention The interprofessional I-PASS training was adapted from the existing I-PASS: Medical Student Workshop by a team of interprofessional faculty and presented to nursing and medical students. Main measures Simulated patient handoffs were used to assess communication performance prior to and following training. Evaluation involved the transcription and scoring of all verbal units delivered during the nurse-physician student handoffs based on four levels of information accuracy: correct, missing, erred, and omitted. Proportional changes in verbal units produced during pre and post-training encounters were compared at the combine total and individual domain levels based on training, student type, gender, previous handoff experience, and their interactions. Results Significant improvements in the proportions of correct, erred, and omitted verbal units at the combined total levels were observed across students, all p Discussion I-PASS training can improve communication accuracy and completeness during nurse-physician student handoffs. An event-based tool and coding procedure allowed for the identification of differential training impact based on individual handoff domains and provider demographics.