August safety behavior: 'Head Before Hands' technique
The use of STAR reduces your chances of making an unintended mental slip or lapse by more than 10 times.
As part of our Safety Starts With Me initiative, USA Health emphasizes a safety behavior and tool of the month to be discussed and practiced at huddles and in departments across the health system.
The August safety behavior and tool is STAR, also known as the “Head Before Hands” technique.
“The acronym STAR gives us four steps to make sure that we use our head before using our hands — in other words, thinking before doing a task,” said Becky Pomrenke, M.S.N., RN, CNL, CNS, patient safety manager for USA Health. “The use of STAR reduces your chances of making an unintended mental slip or lapse by more than 10 times.”
STAR stands for Stop, Think, Act and Review:
Stop: Pause for one second to focus your attention on the task at hand.
Think: Consider the action you are about to take.
Act: Concentrate and carry out the task.
Review: Check to make sure that the task was done right and that you got the right result.
