SBAR Communication in Maternity Care

SBAR Communication

• SBAR is an effective tool for communicating critical patient care information to new team members.
• SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation.
• Situation refers to what is going on with the patient.
• Background refers to the clinical background or context.
• Assessment refers to what you think the problem is.
• Recommendation refers to what you would do to correct it.

Importance of Teamwork in Maternity Care

• The maternity care team plays a vital role in well-being and outcomes.
• The team includes the birth attendant, nurses, support personnel, and consultants.
• A doula or professional support person can increase the probability of a positive outcome.
• Family members and support network often have an important and integral role.

Conflict Resolution

• When conflict occurs, separate the people from the problem.
• Be hard on the problem, soft on the people.
• Document all explanations and implications of the patient's decisions.
• Frequent conversations with the care team and the patient are important for transparency and clarity.

Teamwork Tools

• Situational awareness is important to prevent fixation on one task and losing sight of the overall situation.
• Standardized language, closed-loop communication, mutual respect, and a shared mental model are necessary for effective teamwork.
• SBAR can be used to convey critical information and improve teamwork and patient safety.

Benefits of SBAR

• Use of SBAR in one institution resulted in a 72% to 88% improvement in updating patient medication lists on admission.
• A 53% to 89% improvement in having a corrected medication list on discharge.
• The rate of adverse events decreased from 89.9 per 1,000 patient days to 39.96 per 1,000 patient days.

Learn about the SBAR communication method and its importance in maternity care teamwork. Understand the Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation components in patient care.