In this era of process and quality improvement, the Joint Commission has established national patient safety goals. Improving the effectiveness of communication has been placed at the top of the list—as a healthcare standard.

Upon completion of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Describe the importance of effective communication in reducing medical errors
• Apply effective team training strategies to improve handoffs
• Detail the essential content and sequence of effective handoffs.

The following documents are always available by clicking the appropriate links on the left side of your screen.

• The “I-PASS Interactive Guide” link contains the Observation Forms for Structured Team Communication Techniques including: Brief Checklist, Debrief Checklist, Huddle Checklist, Cross-Monitoring/ Feedback Checklist, and the Assertive Statement Checklist.
• The “I-PASS Handoff” sheet can be accessed by clicking on “I-PASS Handoff.”
• The Patient Summaries can be accessed by clicking “Patient Summary for Exercise 1” or “Patient Summary for Exercise 2.”

In this lesson you will learn team communication techniques and a standardized handoff process that will have a direct impact on the care and safety of patients. So, let’s get started.