approximately 200 mL of blood loss, and her abdominal dressing is dry and intact.
• Assessment—Mrs L’s tympanic temperature is 37° C. An indwelling urinary catheter was placed in the OR, which drained 300 mL of clear urine during surgery, and the bag was emptied before transfer. She was given morphine 4 mg at 10:15 AM and ondansetron 4 mg at 10:30 AM. Mrs L’s vital signs when leaving the OR were 96/64, 78, 16, pulse oximetry 99% on 3 L of oxygen. She is hemodynamically stable although she continues in atrial fibrillation. No complications occurred.
• Recommendations—Maintain the patient on 3 L of oxygen by face mask because of her history of COPD. Discharge her to the patient care unit when stable. Does anyone have any questions?
As illustrated by the above example, the SBAR communication technique provides much more context into which clinical data related to surgery is communicated. Too often, critical pieces of the patient’s past medical history are omitted from the hand-off report given by the circulating nurse and anesthesia care provider to the PACU nurse because these details are not deemed “pertinent.” Such omissions can, in fact, be detrimental and even catastrophic for the patient. The extra few minutes required to provide hand-off communication in a standardized way can prevent miscommunications from occurring, which could ultimately result in an unnecessary adverse event.
EFFECTIVE HAND-OFF COMMUNICATIONS
Effective and standardized communication between care providers at