ASPAN NATIONAL CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS e5

regarding patient progress is at the forefront. Staff has height-

ened awareness of “owning the family”. Survey feedback is

immediately reviewed by leadership to address potential perfor-

mance improvement opportunities.

FAMILY VISITATION IN POST ANESTHESIA CAREUNITTeam Leader: Rose D. Ziffra, RN, BSN, CPAN, CAPA

Adventist Hinsdale Hospital- Hinsdale, IL

Cheryl Van Dam, RN, BS, CPAN, Dani Brazinskaite, RN, BSN,

CPAN

An increased length of stay in PACU has resulted in lower pa-

tient satisfaction, increased family anxiety and frustration.

We want to develop a family centered environment promoting

a positive experience and support both the Hinsdale Hospital

mission and ASPAN Standards of caring for the patient and

family while maintaining the safety and confidentiality of the

patient.

With the support of the administration, we reviewed and dis-

cussed PACU visitation Evidence Practice Research with the

staff, surveyed the PACU staff and addressed their concerns

and developed guidelines for visitation. We received approval

from Infection Prevention and involved the Nurse Liaison and

Volunteers to assist with escorting the patients. After a month

trial and positive patient and family feedback, the process

was presented to Surgical, Anesthesia Services Patient Care

Committee and received approval after addressing surgeon

concern.

The new visitation process began September 2010. Patient sat-

isfaction was at the 1st percentile and is now at the 77th percen-

tile. We are maintaining high scores on Concern for Family,

Information given to family, Skills of nurses and Willingness to

recommend the Center. The waiting room is no longer over-

crowded; after visitation, family can go anywhere and PACU

contacts them for discharge. Even if the patient stays longer

in PACU, the perception of delay is decreased.

Family visitation in PACU has had a positive impact for patients

and families in spite of longer length of stay resulting from con-

struction of a new patient tower.

ENGAGING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN THEPERIOPERATIVE EXPERIENCECarolyn A. Benigno, MSN, RN, CPN, Clinical Nurse, Margaret

Groves, BS, CCLS, Child Life Specialist

Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC

Mellaknese Coker, BSN, CAPA, CPAN, CPN, Nurse Manager,

Haeok Chung, MSN, MHA, BSN, RN, Clinical Supervisor

Background/Problem: Advancing the practice of patient

and family-centered care requires creative ideas and solutions

to improve the surgical experience for children and their fam-

ilies.

Objective: To engage children and families in fun, interactive

perioperative-related activities at the beginning and throughout

their surgery day to improve patient satisfaction and to decrease

anxiety.

Implementation:Nursing and Child Life Services collaborated

on a grant-funded project to create an activity/educational book

to prepare children for their surgery, and to provide fun activi-

ties for them to make the environment more comfortable. Each

child, ages 4 and up, receives an activity book and crayons/pen-

cils at registration or Pre-Op on surgery day. Engaging children

and families early helps them understand the surgery process

through multi-sensory activities.

Successful practice: Staff, children, and families have positive

feedback on the activity book. The book was edited based on

suggestions / feedback fromparents and staff from the Perioper-

ative Patient and Family-Centered Care Committee. The book

creatively communicates the typical sequence of events on sur-

gery day and engages children and families in the perioperative

experience.

Outcomes Achieved: Working with children and their fami-

lies is one of the core principles of patient and family-centered

care. An activity book is a creative idea and solution to decrease

anxiety, to provide distraction, and to improve patient satisfac-

tion and the surgical experience.

Implications: Perianesthesia nursing can collaborate with

other disciplines, such as Child Life Specialists, to create educa-

tional tools to improve the surgical experience for children and

their families.

‘TEAM CARE HANDOFFS’ REFOCUSING CARE TOMAKE PATIENT SAFETY OUR PRIORITYTeam Leader: Leslie Russell, BS, RN, BSN, Clinical Nurse

Manager Perioperative Services

St. Anthony North Hospital (Centura) Westminster, CO

TeamMember: Kathleen Lombard, RN, MSN, CNOR, Director of

Surgical Services

Background and Significance: In today’s ever-changing

health care system a high-quality nursing handoff process is

a critical part to maintain patient safety. The preservation of

necessary patient data during the handoff process is fundamen-

tal to make certain continuity of care and patient safety is our

number one priority.We identified a need to change our current

practice. The purpose of this project was to increase patient

safety by eliminating data loss during handoff communication

in the perioperative setting.

Learner Objectives of Project:

1) Verbalize the impact of data loss on perioperative patient

safety.

2) Describe the impact of team care using a written check-

list on data loss during handoff communication.

Process of Implementation: An Evidence-based pilot study

labeled “TeamCare”was designed to refocus handoffs so as to im-

prove surgical patient safety and standardize the handoff process.

Theprocess includeda SurgicalRNvisiting thepatient’s roomand

conducting a face-to-face verbal handoff with the patient and the

floor RN. This “TeamCare” handoff process also occurred in con-

junctionwith anewlydevelopedwritten surgical specific SBAR-Q

handoff tool that is completed at the patient’s bedside.

Results: The same series of datawas collected and compared to

base-line data for telephone handoffs. Results showed that the