Immediately before a bedside lumbar puncture, the nurse leads the team through the Universal Protocol "time-out." Which best describes the required components of the time-out?
1Complete one time-out during the morning huddle to cover every procedure scheduled that day.
2Have the provider announce the patient and procedure while the remaining team continues setup.
3Pause the immediate team before the procedure to actively confirm the patient, site, and procedure.✓ Correct answer
4Have the nurse verify the chart and equipment alone before bringing supplies to the bedside.
Explanation
The final time-out occurs immediately before the invasive procedure. The immediate procedure-team members stop other activity and actively communicate until they agree on, at minimum, the correct patient identity, correct site, and procedure. Any concern must be resolved before starting. A morning huddle, a provider announcement without team engagement, or a nurse's solo chart check does not replace the team time-out.
Wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient surgery is a sentinel event. The time-out is the final stop. The classic NCLEX trap is "the nurse already confirmed the patient earlier, so we can skip" — wrong; the time-out happens immediately before the procedure with the entire team actively participating.
The nurse is preparing for a bedside lumbar puncture. Per Joint Commission Universal Protocol, a pre-procedure time-out is performed by the entire team immediately before the procedure starts.
Universal Protocol — Joint Commission protocol to prevent wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient surgery and procedures.
Pre-procedure time-out — Team pause immediately before procedure to verbally confirm patient, procedure, site, position, equipment, and consent.
Site marking — Surgeon marks the surgical site with their initials before the procedure; an additional verification layer.