Disclosures: Gabrielle Abissi, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest
Objective: Our study aims to improve communication of day to day activities that occur during inpatient rehabilitation. Patient care is dynamic and requires effective transmission of new information. Given the increasing complexity of patient care, however, it is important to identify crucial information from more benign data to streamline patient care for improved outcomes. By educating nurses, therapists and patient care technicians using simple algorithms we believe patient care can be improved while simultaneously promoting provider wellness.
Design: Prospective cohort Setting : Inpatient acute rehabilitation Participants : Nursing administration, floor nurses from three acute inpatient rehabilitation units and the physical medicine and rehabilitation residents.
Interventions: The first intervention is education in the form of concise algorithms to educate nurses for improved decision making. The second intervention is a collaborative communication log for overnight covering physician to track number of pages and the nature of the page.
Main Outcome Measures: Number of pages pre and post nursing education. The nature of the pages received during call.
Results: The data that was collected before the educational intervention showed a total of 149 pages received while on call. Of those pages 106 out of the 149 pages (71%) were pages that required emergent intervention from a physician who was on call. Preliminary data post-education is ongoing and showed improved satisfaction with communication among nurses and residents. Conclusions: Case algorithms guide nursing communication and minimize unnecessary gaps in relaying information. The communication log can serve to track non-urgent concerns to be addressed by the primary team. In this manner, delivering high quality care can be prioritized.
Level of Evidence: Level II
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Abissi G, Lin L, Taborda R, Greiss C, Moore M. The Nursing Communication Log: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Facilitate Better Communication in an Inpatient Acute Rehabilitation Hospital [abstract]. PM R. 2020; 12(S1)(suppl 1). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-nursing-communication-log-an-interdisciplinary-approach-to-facilitate-better-communication-in-an-inpatient-acute-rehabilitation-hospital/. Accessed May 31, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2020
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-nursing-communication-log-an-interdisciplinary-approach-to-facilitate-better-communication-in-an-inpatient-acute-rehabilitation-hospital/