A systematic review on the structured handover interventions between nurses in improving patient safety outcomes

Abstract

Nursing handovers, or handoffs, entail the process of transferring and accepting both the responsibility for the care of a patient and patient-specific information. This conveyance of patient data ensures the continuity and safety of the patient care in inpatient setting (The Joint Commission Center for Healthcare, 2014). However, when a misalignment of expectations occurs between the sender of information and the receiver, serious communication failures follow during the handover (The Joint Commission, 2017). A study on Harvard-affiliated hospitals has linked communication failures to 1,744 patient deaths in 5 years (Bailey, 2016). Therefore, it is essential that, in a high-turnover healthcare setting, effective communication be in place to ensure the clear and concise sharing of patient information (Gooch, 2016). AbstractAim: This review aimed to elucidate the effectiveness of structured handovers in improving patient outcomes in the wards.Background: Studies have reported that the lack of quality handovers is one of the main causes of adverse effects. Evaluation: A search over six electronic databases: MEDLINE; CINAHL; Web ofScience; EMBASE; Scopus; and CENTRAL via Ovid concluded nine studies and synthesized by two independent reviewers based on the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement was used to guide the undertaking of this review and meta-analysis. All studies published up to February 2019 were considered in this review. Key issues:This review has demonstrated that structured handovers reduced the incidences of patient complications, medication errors and general adverse events.However, the results were not statistically significant.Conclusion: Current structured handover formats were effective in reducing problematic handovers such as omission of information, inaccurate information and documentation errors. Implications for Nursing Management:Although there is limited high-quality and rigorous research conducted to gain a clearer understanding of the impacts on patient-related outcomes in nursing care, structured handovers remained effective in reducing the number of mistakes in information transfer. K E Y W O R D S communication, patient safety, handoff | 745 BUKOH and SIaH 2 | BACKG ROU N D Continuity management in an inpatient setting is essential to provide safe and effective patient care to minimize risks of medical errors and to achieve this, good communication within the nursing team is vital. A structured and standardized nursing handover can improve patient outcomes, including lowered patient fall rates, lengths of stay in the hospital, mortality and the number of code or medical emergency team calls (Mardis et al., 2017). Additionally, measures for nurse-related outcomes demonstrated improvement, with enhanced continuity of care for patients through better compliance to plans of care, timely delivery of care and improved recall of information provided (Smeulers, Lucas, & Vermeulen, 2014). As su...

Handover using ISBAR principles in two perioperative sites – A quality improvement project

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