Passing The Baton: An Experimental Study of Shift Handover

Abstract

Shift handovers occur in many safety-critical environments, including aviation maintenance, medicine, air traffic control, and mission control for space shuttle and space station operations. Shift handovers are associated with increased risk of communication failures and human error. In dynamic industries, errors and accidents occur disproportionately after shift handover. Typical shift handovers involve transferring information from an outgoing shift to an incoming shift via written logs, or in some cases, face-to-face briefings. The current study explores the possibility of improving written communication with the support modalities of audio and video recordings, as well as face-to-face briefings. Fifty participants participated in an experimental task which mimicked some of the critical challenges involved in transferring information between shifts in industrial settings. All three support modalities-face-to-face, video, and audio recordings, reduced task errors significantly over written communication alone. The support modality most preferred by participants was face-to-face communication; the least preferred was written communication alone.

Pharmacy students’ interprofessional experience and performance in advanced pharmacy practice experience rotations amid COVID-19 pandemic

“…Research has shown that face-to-face communication is preferred over written communication for tasks that require collaboration and coordination. In a study on shift handover, participants found face-to-face communication to be the most preferred modality, as it reduced task errors significantly compared to written communication alone ( 17 ). This shift may have implications for pharmacy students’ interprofessional development and their ability to learn from and collaborate with other healthcare professionals.…”