Final Education Practicum Project Paper

• this is my final paper for my Masters in eduction in nursing.

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Titile – Medication Education during bedside shift report

PICOT Question – Among registered nurses on the CPCU unit (P), does education and implementation of a structured medication teaching framework during bedside shift report (I) versus usual practice without the use of standardized education (C) improve nurse competence and consistency in medication education (O) in four to six weeks (T)?

The MSN Nurse Educator practicum project aims at educating the nursing staff at the Cardiac Progressive Care Unit (CPCU) to consistently involve the use of the standardized medication education in the process of bedside shift report. Although bedside shift report is an evidence-based practice, which has been known to improve interaction with patients and foster safety, medication information transfer during handoff is inconsistent. Medication name, purpose, and potential side effects may lead to a lack of awareness in patients and a low level of satisfaction with the received care (Anshasiand Almayasi, 2024; Abt et al., 2025).

To fill this gap, the project lead will develop and provide specific educational interventions that will equip the nursing staff with the ability to reliably integrate medication education into bedside shift report. The instructional materials will focus on clinical significance of medication discussion in handoff, components of medication education, and application of simple patient friendly language to facilitate understanding. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model will be used as the basis of education to guide the process of implementing and assessing the changes in practice through an iterative process and to improve the behavior of the staff in accordance with the set goals (Gheisari et al., 2025; Parozzi et al., 2025).

3. BACKGROUND

Communication is one of the cornerstones of patient centered and safe nursing care and is closely associated with a better patient satisfaction and a better patient outcome. The evidence based practice of bedside shift report is already firmly present in literature since it promotes transparency, enhances patient engagement, and decreases the number of errors associated with communication.

Despite such advantages, the research shows that medication education at bedside shift report is often irregular and not standardized. Change in the communication that nurses use when discussing medications can be caused by lack of adequate time, conflicting demands of the clinical environment, or even a lack of a systematic direction. Such discrepancies in the process of medication communication during the interaction on handover in the specialty practice environment indicate that critical information is frequently omitted or is not brought to the attention of the patient (Braaf et al., 2015). These misunderstandings in medication communication have been linked to reduced patient understanding, suboptimal adherence, and lower satisfaction with care effects, which is especially strong in patients with limited health literacy (Anshasi and Almayasi, 2024; Trill, 2025).

The significance of the effective medication communication is also highlighted by the survey identified as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), which explicitly measures the attitude of patients to the quality of medication explanation including side effects. This highlights why there is the need to have clear, consistent, and reliable communication practices regarding bedside handoff in matters of medication education. Nurse educators can help to close this gap through specific educational interventions that will facilitate standardized communication over medication (Gheisari et al., 2025; Parozzi et al., 2025; Trill, 2025).

The practicum project is a direct reaction to a identified educational requirement of the Cardiac Progressive Care Unit (CPCU). The project will sustain positive results in communication practices by providing evidence based methods to the nursing staff to incorporate medication education into their daily bedside shift report. The importance of education of the staff, instead of human level intervention, is in a close correlation with the MSN Nurse Educator position and supports the greater objective in promoting safety, patient comprehension and the overall experience of care.

4. PROJECT METHOD

Project Design

This project will use a nurse led educational quality improvement design focused on staff development and practice change. The PlanDoStudyAct (PDSA) model will guide implementation and evaluation.

Educational Framework

Adult Learning Theory will guide the educational approach, recognizing nurses as selfdirected learners who benefit from education that is relevant, experience based, and immediately applicable to practice.

Teaching Methods and Educational Tools

The educational intervention will utilize multiple evidence-based teaching strategies to support adult learners and promote retention and practice change. Teaching methods will include:

Brief in-person in-service education sessions to introduce the rationale, expectations, and standardized approach to medication education during bedside shift report

PowerPoint presentations to visually reinforce key concepts and ensure consistency of content

Quick-reference tip sheets and flyers summarizing essential medication education elements (medication name, purpose, and safety considerations)

odal education enhances knowledge retention and translation into clinical practice (Knowles et al., 2015; Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019).

Unit-based posters to reinforce expectations and sustain awareness of the practice change

These methods are supported by adult learning theory and existing literature demonstrating that multim

Post-Project Nurse Feedback Questionnaire

The project will be based on the nurse led educational quality improvement design aimed at the formation of knowledge of the nursing staff and the implementation of sustainable communication practices changes. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model will be used to carry out and assess the intervention and to implement the necessary changes through the feedback of the staff and the observed results.

Educational Framework

The learning strategy is based on the Adult Learning Theory, which acknowledges the fact that nurses are self-confident, experience-oriented learners that respond to learning that is relevant, practical, and can be instantly applied in clinical practice. The framework allows applying multimodal learning options that involve people in using different formats depending on their preferences to learning (Knowles et al., 2015).

Learning Methods and Educational resources.

The educational intervention will make use of several evidence-based teaching methods and tools to uphold the knowledge acquisition, retention and translation into practice. These include:

Short face-to-face in-service training on the purpose and expectations, as well as on the pattern to use when adding medication education during bedside shift report.

Use PowerPoint presentation to have meaningful ideas supported by pictures and to deliver a uniform message.

Summative tip sheets and handouts summary of key aspects of medication education, such as: medication name, purpose, and critical safety precautions.

discussions.

The unit based posters were in strategic places to strengthen the expectations and support the remembrance of the practice change.

These multimodal approaches coincide with the theory of adult learning, and they are backed by the existing literature that proves the effectiveness of different educational strategies to improve knowledge retention and a subsequent transfer of learning to clinical practice (Gheisari et al., 2025; Parozzi et al., 2025; Trill, 2025; Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt, 2019).

Intervention (Staff Education)

The nurse educator will plan and implement a learning module on CPCU nursing staff, based on the instruction about the incorporation of the medication education into the process of the bedside shift report. Educational learning materials will focus on the need and significance of medication discussions during handoff, keys to effective medication education, and patient centered communication. The instruction will be in the form of short in service, which will be supported by the standardized educational resources and job aids.

Implementation

Upon the completion of the educational sessions, the nursing staff will start integrating the improved medication education factors within their daily bedside shift report. Continued assistance by the nurse educator will be provided to orient practice, clarify issues, and encourage uniformity in the implementation process.

Data Analysis and Collection

The anonymous survey will be conducted to nursing staff following the intervention to assess their level of knowledge and confidence as well as their perceptions of how the education will influence their practice. The analysis of the results of the survey will be conducted in a descriptive manner, revealing the trends and the areas to improve. Besides this, unit level HCAHPS medication related communication scores will be examined descriptively as a secondary observational measure to investigate possible changes after implementation.

References

Abt, M., Schneider, P., Martin, L., Delmas, P., & Ortoleva Bucher, C. (2025). I-PASS-structured bedside nursing handovers: A type-1 effectivenessimplementation hybrid pilot study. Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Anshasi, H., & Almayasi, Z. A. (2024). Perceptions of patients and nurses about bedside nursing handover: A qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis. Nursing Research and Practice, 2024, Article 3208747.

Braaf, S., Rixon, S., Williams, A., Liew, D., & Manias, E. (2015). Medication communication during handover interactions in specialty practice settings. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 24(19-20), 28592870.

Gheisari, F., Farzi, S., Tarrahi, M. J., Momeni-Ghaleghasemi, T., Farzi, S., Nazari, F., & TajmirRiahi, R. (2025). The effect of an ISBAR-based clinical supervision model during handover on clinical decision-making and self-efficacy of nursing internship students: A quasi-experimental study. BMC Medical Education, 25, 815.

Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The adult learner (8th ed.). Routledge.

Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2019). Evidence-based practice in nursing and healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Parozzi, M., Meraviglia, I., Ferrara, P., Morales Palomares, S., Mancin, S., Sguanci, M., Lopane, D., Destrebecq, A., Lusignani, M., Mezzalira, E., Bonacaro, A., & Terzoni, S. (2025). Effectiveness of a gamification-based intervention for learning a structured handover system among undergraduate nursing students: A quasi-experimental study. Nursing Reports, 15(9), 322.

Trill, K. L. (2025). Innovative bedside shift reporting: Utilizing the Mad LibsTM SBAR tool for students. Nurse Educator, 50(2), 66.

Nelson, M. M. A. (2019). Utilization of bedside shift report to decrease medication errors on a cardiac progressive care unit [Doctoral dissertation, Abilene Christian University]. Digital Commons @ ACU. .