Communication at the bedside to enhance patient care: A survey of nurses' experience and perspective of handover

Abstract

Communication at the bedside to enhance patient care: A survey of nurses' experience and perspective of handoverStrategies to support continuity of care and improve patient safety during clinical handover have been developed. The aims of this study were to identify the strengths and limitations in current practice of nursing clinical handover and implement a new bedside handover process. A total of 259 nurses completed a cross-sectional survey at change of shift on 1 day, which was followed by an audit of the pilot implementation of bedside handover. The survey results showed great variation in the duration, location and method of handover with significant differences in the experience of nurses employed part-time compared with full-time. Following implementation of standardized bedside handover on two wards, the audit revealed significant improvement in the involvement of patients, use of Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation, active patient checks and checking of documentation. These findings suggest the use of standardized protocols and communication tools for bedside handover improve continuity of patient care.

Perspectives of clinical handover processes: a multi‐site survey across different health professionals

“…In addition, ineffective handovers can cause major problems relating to lack of delivery of appropriate care and the possibility of misuse or poor utilisation of resources (Arora et al 2005, Siddiqui et al 2012). Previous survey studies of clinical handover have mainly focused on considering the perspectives of doctors (Fassett et al 2007, Karnwal et al 2008, Johner et al 2013, Lindsay et al 2013, Mazhar et al 2013, Kessler et al 2014 or nurses (O'Connell et al 2008, Street et al 2011. However, the delivery of high-quality clinical handovers often requires communication and collaboration between different health professions.…”

Bedside Reporting and SBAR: Improving Patient Communication and Satisfaction

“…Following implementation of a standardized bedside report on two units, there was significant improvement in handover practice through the involvement of patients and use of SBAR (Street et al, 2011). Another study showed that verbal handovers are unreasonably lengthy, include nonessential and irrelevant information and provide unreliable and inaccurate information focusing on subjective, speculative, and vague information (McMurray, Chaboyer, Wallis, & Fetherston, 2010).…”

“…The results of a pilot study showed that there is great variation in handover practices related to the duration, method, location, and information exchanged during handover (Street et al, 2011). Following implementation of a standardized bedside report on two units, there was significant improvement in handover practice through the involvement of patients and use of SBAR (Street et al, 2011).…”

“…including bedside reporting using the Situation-BackgroundAssessment-Recommendation (SBAR) framework can help streamline information exchanges, and promote patient safety (Street et al, 2011).…”

The quality of intensive care unit nurse handover related to end of life: A descriptive comparative international study

“…reported that the information they received was subjective, 30-48% stated that they could have gotten the information elsewhere while 40% complained of receiving irrelevant information and another 14-35% that handover took too much time (O'Connell et al, 2008;Street et al, 2011). In another study of 23 taped handover reports of a general medical ward, it was reported that 85% of information already in written reports.…”