Nurses’ perceptions regarding using the SBAR tool for handoff communication in a tertiary cancer center in Qatar

Abstract

Background: Communication failure has been reported in the literature as the primary source of medical errors and patient harm. Among various methods of handoff communication, Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) is a reliable and efficient framework that nurses worldwide use. The investigators sought to assess the perceptions of nurses with regard to using the SBAR tool for hand-off communication at a cancer hospital in Qatar. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out to assess perceptions regarding the use of SBAR among 117 staff nurses working in inpatient units of National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR). A handover evaluation tool was used, enabling nurses to self-report their perceptions. Results: The majority of staff nurses opined that SBAR followed a logical sequence, with a reduction in communication errors after its use. Also, 53.9% of the nurses reported that they would always recommend the SBAR framework in other areas. The majority (87.3%) of the nurses had good perceptions regarding the use of the SBAR framework, and none of them had poor perceptions regarding the same. The mean duration of handovers reduced after their use of SBAR. There was no association between perceptions and demographic variables. Conclusions: SBAR is safe and efficient, and it can be recommended for all healthcare settings. The SBAR communication technique provides an organized logical sequence and improved communication that has been proved to ensure patient safety.

Nurses’ Satisfaction Towards the Usage of Sbar as a Communication Tool for Handoff in a Private Hospital Penang

“…The result of this study contradicted with the study conducted by Nagammal et al, (2017) which revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the overall perception of satisfaction using SBAR score and all the demographic variables among nurses. On the other hand, a study done by Lee et al (2019) showed that there were some socio-demographic data consisting of years of experience and average time spent in documentation which had a statistically significant correlation with nurses' satisfaction towards SBAR.…”

“…A similar study done by Ho et al, (2017) reported that the respondents' total mean of score was M = 25.63; SD =7.86, which showed that the usage of SBAR had a moderate effect on their communication skills. At the same time, another study conducted by Nagammal et al, (2017) revealed that 84% of participants agreed that SBAR helped them to experience a better interaction and support. In addition to that, the participants' overall satisfaction score in subscale 2 revealed that they had the opportunity to discuss and clarify clinical aspects with their colleagues which could allow the increase of teamwork among nurses.…”

“…As for subscale 3, most of the participants (60.7%) were satisfied that SBAR was able to provide patient information in a timely fashion corresponding to a research done by Nagammal et al, (2017) that stated 9 5 . 1 % o f n u r s e s a c k n o w l e d g e d t h a t S B A R communication technique follow a logical order and provide an organized patient information.…”

“…This indicated that the nurses working in this hospital are young and could be contributed to the fact that they were still fulfilling their years of bond as they were sponsored by this hospital for their training. However, a study done by Nagammal et al, (2017) revealed that most of the participant's age were 36-40 years old with a mean age of 36.2 years (SD = 5.70).…”

Instruction Program for Nurses Knowledge about Applying the Communication Strategies (SBAR) in Critical Care Units

“…The characteristics of the participants in the present study was high percentage of them 52% at age group 18-28 years old, (Achrekar et al 2016) including in their study 80% nurses at age 21-30 years old, 60% of the present study was females [8] . (Nagammal et al 2016) their sample was high percentage of females which of 87.3% [9] . Regarding the years of experience in nursing, the characteristics of the present study indicated that the majority of nurses have experience from (1-5 years) with percentage 52% and according to years of experience in critical care units, the majority of nurses have experience from (1-5 years) with percentage 76%.…”