Interventions to Improve Interprofessional Bedside Rounds in a Paediatric Critical Care Unit

Abstract

Communication errors are the leading root cause of preventable adverse events in hospitals. Patient care rounds provide the most important opportunity for interprofessional communication; however, rounds involve many interprofessional team members, and it can be challenging to achieve optimal communication and team functioning. While rounding best practices have been identified, implementations of best practices have produced mixed results, and little emphasis has been placed on explicitly aligning interventions to user needs. The goal of this study was to elucidate health care providers’ (HCPs) rounding needs and to align intervention design to those needs to improve interprofessional communication within a paediatric critical care unit (CCU). Interview and survey data were collected to identify needs and a participatory design approach was taken to transform needs into intervention(s). The main needs identified led to specific changes included in the intervention design such as changes in the structure, content and timing of morning rounds.