• To appreciate that transferring critical care patients to the imaging department can compromise their safety
• To recognise that using transfer checklists can enhance preparation and reduce patient safety incidents
• To read about the development and evaluation of a transfer checklist at an intensive care unit in England
Critically ill patients often need to be transferred from the intensive care unit (ICU) to the imaging department. This can compromise their safety, not only because of the inherent risk of deterioration but also because of the potential for incidents due to the inadequate preparation of medicines, equipment and monitoring. Using a patient transfer checklist can reduce the risk of human factor errors.
This article reports on a quality improvement project conducted at the ICU of an acute hospital trust in the Midlands to develop and evaluate a patient transfer checklist. The checklist was developed based on guidance from the Intensive Care Society and evaluated using retrospective incident reports, an audit of staff compliance and a user survey. Using a transfer checklist in the ICU is likely to reduce patient safety incidents during transfers, but a shift in workplace culture may be needed to enhance incident reporting.
Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2024.e2137
Peer reviewThis article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Correspondence Conflict of interestNone declared
Pearson L, Finney A (2024) Patient safety during transfers from critical care: developing and assessing a checklist. Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2024.e2137
Published online: 27 August 2024
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