Lessons learned from introducing huddle boards to involve nursing staff in targeted observation and reporting of medication effect in a nursing home

BACKGROUND: Medication administration and management in nursing homes can occur during all phases of the medication process. The aim of this study was to investigate if an introduction of a systematic use of huddle board led to an increased amount of documentation in the patient record of observations of effects and side effects following a change in medication. METHODS: A three-layer intervention approach combining huddle boards, educating the entire staff in medication observation and documentation, and frequent feedback to the staff about the outcome was applied. A standard was set for the expected reporting. Correlation between expected and actual reporting as an average was calculated and the staff received weekly updates on their observation–reporting results. RESULTS: The huddle board became a hub in providing an overview of the expectations of observations. To visualize the impact of the intervention, use of a run chart gave comprehensive information about the extent to which the expected goal of documentation was reached. Four different organizational steps and one individual action in the last step were taken to improve the observation–reporting. The identifying of the nonreporting nurses and individual staff guidance to these nurses resulted in a significant improvement in observation–reporting. The expected goal of 100% average reporting was achieved 6 months after all wards were included in the improvement project. CONCLUSION: The combination of huddle boards, educating the entire staff in observation and documentation, and frequent feedback to the staff about the outcome proved to be a useful approach in medication safety work in nursing homes.