Using the SBAR Tool in Optimizing Patient Care and Staff Well-being
Instructions
Executive Summary
SBAR is a communication tool that promotes quality and patient safety. Staff and physicians use SBAR to share patient information in a clear, complete, concise, and structured format, improving communication efficiency and accuracy. The value of SBAR is its simplicity. It may be effectively used as an administrative tool as well as a tool among health care providers. In this exercise, you are asked to use the SBAR tool as an Executive Summary to request additional financial resources.
Using the SBAR format – Identify a quality-of-care situation (S) that requires improvement that will require additional funds. Share the background (B). Provide an assessment (A). In a Recommendation (R), include a request for funding with the projected cost required for resources to deploy the improvement you recommend. Topics may include equipment, staff, education, services, etc. Reference needs will vary. If you identify a standard that is not met – reference the standard, if added equipment is needed – reference the cost, if FTE’s – you may use the average cost per FTE in your facility. Internet research is acceptable. (500 – 1000 words).
You may use an intro paragraph and a summary of 2 – 3 sentences – not required. Consider that your audience is a decision-making administrator or a Board of Directors.
Situation
Identify a quality-of-care deficit – a situation that requires improvement that will involve new or added resources requiring additional funds.- 20 Points
Background
Clearly articulate how the situation evolved.
20 Points
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Assessment
Include the present situation and rationale for improvement.
20 Points
Recommendation
Include a request for funding, inclusive of cost: benefit.
20 Points
Format/Organization
Executive Summary – with SBAR headings: Situation; Background; Assessment; Recommendation
10 Points
APA, Title Page, References – 500 – 1000 words. (References – Minimum 2).
10 Points
This is just a rough start to what I have so far for you to start with.
Situation- The quality-of-care deficit that I have identified is a need for an administrative assistant for the liver transplant call team.
Background- The kidney call team has been using an administrative assistant to input donor referrals, admit patients, and help with other non-clinical paperwork and it has been a tremendous help to the nurse coordinators. As the supervisor of the liver call team, I would like to propose to my manager and director that we hire an administrative assistant to do the same for the liver team.
Assessment- We are currently short-staffed and having an administrative assistant could help to alleviate some of the stress of the non-clinical side of our job as transplant coordinators. It would give us more time to focus on our clinical job and ensure patient safety.
Recommendation- This recommendation for the liver transplant call team will require an additional FTE approval of $ 65,000 annually to the call team budget.
Solution
Executive Summary: Resource Acquisition-SBAR
Effective communication among members of the healthcare team is essential for quality and safe patient care. The Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) tool promotes effective communication among members of the healthcare team (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2022). This Executive Summary will use the SBAR tool to request additional financial resources to support the implementation of a quality improvement initiative.
Situation- The facility is committed to providing quality healthcare to all groups of patients including those who are receiving liver transplants. The quality-of-care deficit to be addressed is the need to hire an administrative assistant for the liver transplant call team. Adequate staffing is a key determinant of quality care in hospital settings (Winter et al., 2021).
This includes both clinical and non-clinical staff. Workload and employee burnout are some of the problems being experienced due to inadequate staffing. Hiring an administrative assistant will help to reduce the workload currently experienced by the clinical staff who are providing care to patients receiving liver transplants.
Background– The kidney call team has been using an administrative assistant to input donor referrals, admit patients, and help with other non-clinical paperwork. An administrative assistant has been of tremendous help to the nurse coordinators. These individuals help in the smooth running of the team, as well as, the entire organization (Malvik, 2020). Administrative assistants often work closely with senior-level employees and executives, as well as, the clinical team to promote the smooth running of the kidney call team.
The supervisor of the liver transplant call team is proposing to the manager and director to hire an administrative assistant to do the same for the liver team. The liver transplant call team needs an administrative assistant to support the non-clinical tasks that healthcare professionals need to complete to effectively perform their roles (Malvik, 2020). Just like the kidney call team, the liver transplant call team is a multidisciplinary collaboration that requires the input of everyone involved.
Assessment: The facility is currently short-staffed and having an administrative assistant could help to alleviate some of the stress experienced by the non-clinical side of the workforce as transplant coordinators. There has been pressure originating from the lack of an administrative assistant in addition to staff shortages (Winter et al., 2021).
Going by experience, it is clear that an administrative assistant plays a significant role in the quality of healthcare delivered to patients by the clinical team. Jobs such as donor referrals, the admission of patients, and other non-clinical paperwork are often handled by other staff and some nurses which in turn, causes inconveniences in other areas of operations.
Hiring an administrative assistant would give nurses more time to focus on their clinical job and ensure patient safety. According to Maunder et al. (2022), administrative assistants are among the non-clinical staff that are employed in contemporary hospital settings to help reduce burnout and psychological distress. Professional burnout is a very important outcome of occupational stress in healthcare.
In addition to its impact on individual professionals, burnout has other several consequences for the healthcare system and patients, including higher workforce turnover, absenteeism, increased medical errors, and reduced productivity (Maunder et al., 2022). Burnout affects employees emotionally and physically. Therefore, an administrative assistant will help prevent such problems.
Recommendation- This recommendation for the liver transplant call team will require an additional full-time equivalent (FTE) approval of $ 65,000 annually to the call team budget. This additional money will help in hiring an administrative assistant as explained in the previous sections. This allocation is expected to show a long-term beneficial impact on the organization and the unit. It is estimated that the hospital loses about $50,000 annually due to the lack of an administration in the liver transplant call team.
The loss is associated with burnout from other non-clinical staff and inconveniences caused to the clinical team due to staff shortage (Maunder et al., 2022). In two years, the hospital would have saved almost $55 that could have been lost if the administrative assistant was not hired. This cost-benefit analysis shows that the project being proposed will be beneficial financially to the entire organization.
In addition, it is expected that the quality of healthcare provided to the patients will improve due to reduced burnout and staff shortages, which consequently improves efficiency and overall patient outcomes (Maunder et al., 2022). Therefore, the supervisor of the liver call team is requesting the mentioned amount of money to address the identified quality of care deficit.
Conclusion
The Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) tool is effective in improving both clinical and non-clinical operations among healthcare team members. Using this particular tool, the supervisor of the liver call team intends to address inadequate staffing issues in the team. The cost-benefit analysis of hiring an administrative assistant has indicated tremendous benefits; therefore, the proposed idea should be approved.
References
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). (2022). SBAR Tool: Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation. https://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Tools/SBARToolkit.aspx
Maunder, R. G., Heeney, N. D., Hunter, J. J., Strudwick, G., Jeffs, L. P., Ginty, L., Johnstone, J., Kiss, A., Loftus, C. A., & Wiesenfeld, L. A. (2022). Trends in burnout and psychological distress in hospital staff over 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic: a prospective longitudinal survey. Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology (London, England), 17(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12995-022-00352-4
Malvik, C. (2020). What does a medical administrative assistant do? A closer Look behind the desk. https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/what-does-a-medical-administrative-assistant-do/
Winter, V., Dietermann, K., Schneider, U., & Schreyögg, J. (2021). Nurse staffing and patient-perceived quality of nursing care: a cross-sectional analysis of survey and administrative data in German hospitals. BMJ Open, 11(11), e051133. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051133