The Importance Of Having A Verbal Handoff

Recovery Nurse – The patient was transitioned from the operating room to the recovery room. As previously noted, there is no formal hand off process from one area to another within the ambulatory surgical center. The recovery nurse attempted to locate the mother in the waiting area. As noted above, there was no hand off of the mother’s cell phone number or alternate contact information.

The nursing topic of interest is bedside handover, which is the concept of conducting shift handover at the patient’s bed instead of doing it at the front desk.

Handoffs during shift change between nurses is one of the most important ways to communicate essential information related to the patients’ care and their safety. This is an evidence-based practice that improves communication among nurses and patients since the handoffs are conducted at the patients’ bedside, face-to-face, with the computer using SBAR. The patients are involved in the update of their care with the incoming nurse, enabling them to share concerns and to add valuable information, which increases patients’ satisfaction. Additionally, during the handoffs, the nurses with the patients are able to review and update the patients’ white board with the goals, activities, procedures, labs, consults, and symptom management for the incoming

Bradley, S., & Mott, S. (2010). Handover: Faster and safer? Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(1), 23-32

The Joint Commission defines handoffs as “the transfer of information, responsibility and authority regarding a patient’s care from one caregiver to another” (textbook). Although this is the general definition, there are many variations especially within the different healthcare agendas.

Bedside reporting involves giving information or a report to the oncoming nurse in the presence of a patient. This method gives the patient an opportunity to ask questions and get clarification regarding his or her care. Bedside reporting increases patient satisfaction, quality of healthcare and nurse-to-nurse responsibility. Hospitals need to design a better handoff process that can easily reduce patient risks and increase patients’ involvement in their care. Emergency rooms shift reports usually take place at the nursing station of every patient care area. The departing nurse gives information verbally to the oncoming shift. Therefore,

Bedside shift report is the process of completing patient handoff at the bedside with the oncoming

Bedside reporting has the primary function of sharing patient information between nurses, as they change shifts. The nurse ending their shift would report all the changes that have occurred in the state of the patient and all measures which have been taken for the respective patient. This information would be transmitted to the nurse commencing her shift, who would then write and further transmit all patient information occurring during their shift, to the nurse coming to replace them.

In every profession there are changes that propel how tasks are done; nursing is no stranger to this. One of the biggest changes that have come into nursing’s daily events is how report hand-offs are being done. Gone are the days of taped report that each off going nurse must tape about each patient and the oncoming nurse must listen to. Nurses are now being encouraged to move their report to the bedside, in front of the patient (Trossman, 2007). It is very important to know how this can affect the patient and even the nurse’s schedule. With every change, there are positives and negatives that can finalize the decision to keep or forego

Change of shift in the nursing profession is unique (Caruso, 2007). Information is transferred between nurses verbally and through written communication. In many facilities shift report from one shift to another involved sitting down and getting all your orders from a caredex and then talking with the previous nurse face to face going over pertinent information regarding their patients. This type of report usually happens in a report room or sometimes in the hallways or other common

The hand over process of communication between nurses to nurses is done with the intention of transferring essential information for safe, and patient centered care. Traditionally, this shift report has been done away from the patient’s bedside, at the nurse’s station, or other place like staff’s room. In addition, the shift report used to be delivered through audio recording of the patient’s information. These reporting mechanisms did not include face-to-face reporting of the patient information, nor involvement of patient. Therefore, information regarding the patient’s care was not shared with the patient, leaving them out of his/her own care plan. Recent studies and development of Patient Centered Care Philosophy have challenged this belief of giving a report away from the patient. Tan (2015) said, “Shift report must not only be restricted in nurse to nurse communication, but it must involve patients as the recipients of care” (p. 1). Incorporating the patient into the end of shift report is essential for providing patient centered care and patient satisfaction. Nurses at the St Jude Medical center in the acute in-patient rehabilitation unit are not exceptional. Most of the end of the shift report between nurses are still done away from the patient. Aim of this paper is to make a change in the work place, which is the process of giving end of shift report at the bedside incorporating patient and families in the acute in-patient rehabilitation unit at St Jude Medical

The nursing handover was defined in 1969 by Clair and Thrussel as the oral communication of pertinent information about patients. This was supported by Thurgood in 1995 who adopted the view that patient centred care is central to any definition of handover and that it is its primary function.

This mixed method of study set out to understand the nurses in a neonatal unit viewpoint of bedside handover. Although 22 nurses were invited only 16 responded to be included in the study. The Handover Evaluation Scale (HES) was used to gather data during this study. They focused on quality of information that was shared, nurse to nurse interaction, staff support during report time, and involvement of parents of the neonate during handoff time. The objectives during this study were to determine current practice in conjunction with current policy to understand how handover fulfills the goals of transfer of patient information, staff communication and support, and nurse education while measuring the differences, strengths and weaknesses,

Traditionally, nursing shift-to-shift reports were organized methods of communication between only the oncoming and leaving nurse, designated to a location such as the central nursing station or nook of a hallway. Shift reports can be considered the foundation of how the day is going to plan out because it introduces the patient, diagnoses, complications, medications, consults, upcoming test and the entire plan of care. These reports are full of complicated and vital information and while set in certain locations that are vulnerable to interruptions, such as the nursing station, medical errors and miscommunication are more likely to be made. The Joint Commission’s 2009 and 2010 National Patient Safety Goals (Joint Commission, 2015) included two patient safety standards, first to encourage patients to be involved in their health care plan and second, to implement a standardized communication process for handoff reports between providers. Soon after in 2013, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality under the United States Department of Health and Human Services introduced a set of strategies to improve patient engagement along with safety and quality in patient care. Within these strategies the new method of nurse bedside shift report was developed, which suggests nurses to conduct shift-to-shift reports at bedside in the room of each patient, rather than out of the room. The benefits of this new method were

Handover is a time-honoured tradition and in coming staff on every shift must obtain detailed information of patients’ status before handover (Scovell 2010),