Franciscan Healthcare - Munster Web Site

Thursday, April 14, 2011

FPH and P.U.C. nursing students promote a comprehensive work environment!

Four Senior Capstone Nursing course students from Purdue University Calumet joined forces with the Indiana Hospital Association, Lisa Leckrone, Director of Quality & Risk Management and the nursing team at Franciscan Physicians Hospital to promote hand-off communication in the hospital.

The task: ensure communication between departments as patients are moved from one area to another. Michelle Jansma, Brittany Rispens, Tara Zegazzewski, and Caitlyn McDonald, all seniors in PUC's nursing program, came up with a way to solidify the communication taking place. They did so by creating a promise: literally.

P.R.O.M.I.S.E., an acronym created by the nursing students, is a communication tool that can be easily remembered by nurses doing initial analyses of their patients as they move through departments such as pre-surgery, surgery, recovery, intensive care and inpatient rooms.

The letters represent the following:
P: Patient information
R: Review of systems (another way of saying a head-to-toe analysis)
O: Overview of tests and labs
M: Medications
I: IV (including solution, rate, size of needle and site of entry)
S: Specific unit checklist (pertinent information from each department)
E: Exchange of information to family and nurse

Through observation and listening, the students pinpointed communication areas for added assistance and practiced their new method with nurses to analyze change. The information contained in the acronym will prove beneficial for nurses communicating between departments.

Together, with help and organization from the Indiana Hospital Association, these students have furthered their knowledge to help patients and innovate the health care experience. Franciscan Physicians Hospital thanks them for all of their hard work and creative thinking. The future of innovation in nursing will be better with bright students like these!

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