Background Devising a new patient information board for the nurses’ office was to improve the efficiency of the nurse in charge and reduce time spent on handover. Due to a variety of shift patterns worked on the in-patient unit, handovers became a long and laborious task that would occur up to eight times a day to cater for all the staff starting their shifts at different times including MDT. This in turn meant that the nurse in charge would be spending long periods out of their day handing over the same information to different staff which took them away from being able to carry out patient care and take charge of their shift.

Aim Decrease the time of handovers by having useful information available at a glance and to reduce the risk of delays in (OACC) Outcome Assessment and Complexity Collaboration assessments and relevant tasks being carried out by the designated date.

Method HotBoard company was contacted to devise and design a bespoke information board to meet the requirement of the information necessary to reduce handover times. Between the nursing and medical team, a collaborative effort was made to decide what information was to be included on the board to streamline the handovers. The designers incorporated the hospice care logo and colour scheme to give a unified look and the designs were regularly amended until everyone was satisfied with the information on the board.

Results There has already been a marked improvement in the effectiveness of handovers. There are two handovers which take 30 min each. Bank staff working short shifts can read the information rather than take a nurse away from caring for patient to carry out handover. Team members can quickly check the board for OACC and dates that assessments are due for patients and this has noticeably reduced the delays in these being completed for patients.

Conclusion We are due to carry out an audit soon to evaluate the time efficiency of the board and how delays have been reduced and hour many hours have been released for nurses to spend with patients per nurse.