Evaluative Feedback Related to Intradepartmental Communication among Nurses: Reflections on Nurses' and Patients' Empowerment

Abstract

Communication in nursing is a journey to a destination of clear meaning. It is essential in conveying caring and applying nursing skills and knowledge. The communication of patient information to the next care provider can be known as “report,” “end-of-shift report,” “handoff,” or “handover.” This communicates the information necessary for patient care to continue as planned. Three primary things are transferred during every handover: information, authority and responsibility.A bedside shift report should empower nursing staff, improve patient involvement, and allow for a safe transition of care between providers. The handoff among staff nurses during change of shifts in the study setting was inadequate. Therefore, the present study was conducted to improve intradepartmental communication through evaluative feedback. The study was aimed at assessing the adequacy level of intradepartmental communication among nurses’ pre-evaluative feedback; reassessing it post-evaluative feedback; assessing the empowerment level among nurses and patients pre-evaluative feedback; and reassessing it post-evaluative feedback. A quasi-experimental study design with pre-post assessment was used in this study, which was carried out at all medical departments of Ain-Shams University Hospital. It involved all 38 head nurses and their assistants, and 83 staff nurses in the same setting; and 180 patients admitted to the setting before and 180 after the evaluative feedback intervention. The tools used for data collection included a knowledge questionnaire for head nurses, and observation checklist for nurses’ practice of shift report, an observation checklist for staff nurses’ practice of shift report, a scale for nurse’s work empowerment, a patient empowerment/ disempowerment scale, and a self-management scale. A pilot study was done on samples of patients and nurses representing approximately 10% of the main study sample. The fieldwork lasted from August 2014 to January 2015. It involved assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation phases. The study nurses were observed individually three times during the morning shift before giving the evaluative feedback constructed by the researcher based on the information obtained in the assessment phase in addition to pertinent literature. The period between each two successive observations was at least two days. The researcher observed the performance of head nurses, their assistants and the staff nurses to assess