The Effect of ISBAR Tool on Patient Safety

Abstract

Ineffective communication among healthcare professionals can result in a decrease in patient safety. It is a leading cause of medical errors and poor patient outcomes. This can be due to the complexity and pace of the interactions, differences in education and training, the organizational hierarchy of the professionals, and human factors such as cognitive overload, the effects of stress, fatigue, distractions, and poor interpersonal communication styles. Leaders must place value on communication. Having a standardized tool for communicating about patients is essential to the delivery of high-quality care. ISBAR is a structured method of communication that allows the person giving the handover (transmitter) and the person receiving it (receiver) to do so in a standardized & predictable manner. By implementing educational training on the ISBAR tool, staff at a surgery hospital are expected to have increased awareness of how they are communicating. Pre- and post-training questionnaires will be utilized, along with trends of patient outcomes. The ISBAR training should result in more effective communication and better patient outcomes. Using Argyle’s cycle of communication theory as a framework, the key elements of effective communication will be examined and how this relates to patient safety, and how using a standardized tool can improve patient outcomes.