ABCDEF-ICU-GOAL: an innovative mnemonic tool for handover and care of the critical patient. Feasibility study

Authors

Lorenzo Pilati
pilatilorenzo@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9443-2040
Dipartimento Area Emergenza Urgenza - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia;, Italy.
Elena Angela Pasotti
Direzione Aziendale Professioni Sanitarie e Sociosanitarie - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Maurizio Rota
Direzione Aziendale Professioni Sanitarie e Sociosanitarie - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Alessandro Busi
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0098-2216
Dipartimento Area Emergenza Urgenza - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Idangela Dellasega
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1976-2056
Dipartimento Area Emergenza Urgenza - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Alina Pavel
Dipartimento Area Emergenza Urgenza - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Patrizia Bevilacqua
Direzione Aziendale Professioni Sanitarie e Sociosanitarie - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Paolo Musatti
Direzione Aziendale Professioni Sanitarie e Sociosanitarie - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
Nicola Latronico
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2521-5871
Dipartimento Area Emergenza Urgenza - ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia; Dipartimento di Specialità Medico-Chirurgiche, Scienze Radiologiche e Sanità Pubblica – Università degli Studi di Brescia, Italy.

Introduction: ineffective communication, including nurse handover, is the most common cause of preventable errors and intensive care units are among the environments most at risk. The adoption of standardized tools improves information quality and sharing. The aim of the study is to verify whether the use of the acronym “ABCDEF-ICU-GOAL” makes critical care nursing handover more complete, and whether adherence to the ABCDEF bundle is encouraged.

Materials and Methods: the project envisaged the creation and adoption of a new mnemonic identified by the acronym "ABCDEF-ICU-GOAL" to facilitate the assessment of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients and nursing handover according to a standardized method, deliberately recalling the ABCDEF bundle. With a pre-post observational study, we compared the adherence to the ABCDEF bundle and the completeness of nursing handovers before and after the introduction of the mnemonic in a randomly selected sample of 400 nursing handovers.

Results: one hundred percent of nurses used the ABCEF-ICU-GOAL from the start. The data analysis shows a statistically significant variation (p<0.05) of 23 of the 24 analyzed variables, including the evaluations of: pain +26.5%, RASS scale +50%, CAM-ICU scale + 15.9 %, SOMS scale +87%, mobilization +20.7%, nutrition +46.5%, vascular accesses +78.7%, respiratory weaning -9,9%, weaning from sedatives -30,9%. A clear application of the ABCDEF bundle has also increased by 95%.

Discussion: total adherence to the acronym could reflect its mnemonic ease, simplicity, and completeness. With the analysis of the data, significant improvements were found (p<0.05) also for those variables which, although representing already implemented practices, with the use of the acronym have been better documented and traced.

Conclusions: the use of the acronym ABCDEF-ICU-GOAL has improved documentation of ICU patient assessments by facilitating the writing of more complete nursing handover and has promoted adherence to the ABCDEF bundle.

 

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Citations

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How to Cite

Pilati, L., Pasotti, E. A., Rota, M., Busi, A., Dellasega, I., Pavel, A., … Latronico, N. (2025). ABCDEF-ICU-GOAL: an innovative mnemonic tool for handover and care of the critical patient. Feasibility study. Scenario® - Il Nursing Nella Sopravvivenza, 42(1). Retrieved from https://scenario.aniarti.it/index.php/scenario/article/view/595
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