When you need to share a complex story with an important point, using the error prevention technique SBAR can help you organize your thoughts, give needed context, and deliver a recommendation. SBAR stands for:
- S – Describe the Situation
- B – Provide the Background of the situation
- A – Give your Assessment of the situation
- R – Recommend the change to fix the problem
Here’s an example of what SBAR looks like in action. A charge nurse’s computer has been regularly freezing for the past three days and he’s very frustrated. It happened after lunch, it happened before giving meds, it happened when charting hourly rounding. He’s tried rebooting to no avail, so he makes a call to Frontline Support to explain what’s going on. He uses the SBAR format to organize his thoughts. He says to the Support caregiver:
- Situation: “My computer is freezing.”
- Background: “It’s happened three days in a row intermittently throughout the day.”
- Assessment: “I tried rebooting and even using a different computer.”
- Recommendation: “Will you remote access into my computer to help me fix the problem?”
Intermountain’s error prevention focus for May is SBAR. You’re invited to talk about this tool in your next huddle and share examples about how you can use it to quickly communicate problems or issues. Practice SBAR as a team. The SBAR format can be used when discussing treatment at the bedside, but also works well when composing an email to a leader to request a change.
Learn more about SBAR on the Error Prevention website.