Clinical Governance – Pursuing Quality, Safety and Excellence

ISBAR In Our Communication

• Introduction Who, what and where you are and why are you

calling also is this a good time to talk?• Situation

What is happening now. “The situation is….”• Background

What led to the situation. “By way of background…”

• Assessment What you consider the problem is. “My

assessment is” or “I assess….”• Recommendation

What should we do to correct the problem. “I recommend…..”

Clinical Governance – Pursuing Quality, Safety and Excellence

ISBAR In Our Communication

Introduction Who, what and where you are and why are you calling Establish you are talking to the right person and that it is

convenient to have the conversation at that time

• “Hi Joanne, its Rose here, I’m your Patient Safety Officer”• “I am calling because I am concerned about an IIMS I have

just reviewed in relation to an aggression incident that happened here in Newcastle”

• Is this a good time to talk?

Clinical Governance – Pursuing Quality, Safety and Excellence

ISBAR In Our Communication

Situation

Give the situation as of now, including key information such as patient’s age and gender, and current status

• “The situation is that Mr Jones, one of our methadone clients, was verbally aggressive and threatening towards staff yesterday which escalated to physical violence against another client”

Clinical Governance – Pursuing Quality, Safety and Excellence

ISBAR In Our Communication

Background Give the relevant background details such as

presenting factors and complications

• “By way of background I have reviewed the number of incidents over the last 12 months and notice an increasing trend in the number and level of aggression incidents”

Clinical Governance – Pursuing Quality, Safety and Excellence

ISBAR In Our Communication

Assessment

What do you consider is going on

• “I notice that your protocol for dealing with aggressive clients was activated in this incident successfully although the incident still resulted in injury to the other client”.

• “What is worrying is the increasing number of incidents that are quickly escalating to this level”.

• “I thought with this information we could assess whether any further action is required”.

Clinical Governance – Pursuing Quality, Safety and Excellence

ISBAR In Our Communication

Recommendation

Be clear about your recommendation

• “My recommendation is that I pull together the data from IIMS, together with update information from the NUMs, and report this to you in an ISBAR brief so that we can determine if there are opportunities for improvement”