2 Introduction At UPMC Altoona, it is our mission and vision to ensure that our patients are at the center of everything we do, ensuring that every patient gets the right care, in the right way, at the right time, every time(UPMC Altoona, n.d.). Patient care transitions or bedside shift report (BSSR) is a critical aspect to ensuring patients are continuing to receive the appropriate medical care throughout their length of stay. Change of shift can create for a more chaotic environment and when care transitions are done informally, the chance of medical errors occurring increases significantly(Okafor et al., 2017). Implementation and creating a standard to handing off patient care to the next shift, is of utmost importance to continue to provide the patients the care that they deserve. Key Quality and Safety Outcomes Approximately 251,000 deaths occur each year from medical errors, while medical errors are not considered a disease, if they were, it would be the third leading cause of death in the United States(Prapanjaroensin et al., 2020). It is reported by The Joint Commission that eighty percent of medical errors occur during care transitions (L. Foster et al., 2019). The data has shown that the use of an informal shift report puts patient safety at great risk and without intervention, further harm to patients will occur. The rapport between the nurse and the patient is the heart of nursing care and implementing BSSR will allow for continuation of that rapport building with the oncoming nurse. BSSR also allows for patients to actively be involved in their medical care, clarification of any conflicting information regarding the patients plan of care and an immediate nursing assessment to be completed at the beginning of the shift(L. Foster et al., 2019). The use of BSSR has shown improvement in the nurse-patient relationship, patient
