10 Tips to Enhance Communication at Shift Handover
Published: 26 October 2016
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Published: 26 October 2016
Here are ten tips to assist nurses to communicate effectively at handover, ensuring brief yet accurate information is shared to encourage safe continuity of patient care:
Handover, or change of shift, is a critical time for patients, as the accuracy of the information communicated between nurses at shift change could result in a change in patient care – for better or worse.
Research has shown that poor or missed communication has led to events that affect the quality of patient care. In 2003, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations (Alvarado et al. 2006) reported almost 70% of sentinel events are caused by a breakdown in communication. For example, missing identification armbands or misidentified intravenous solutions could cause serious problems. In fast-paced areas like the emergency room or neonatal ICU, proper and accurate communication at handover could mean the difference between life and death.
When handover is inadequate it can also be detrimental to the nurse’s state of mental health. How often have you arrived home only to worry or wonder if you had forgotten to pass on something to the oncoming nurse? It can make for a very restless night’s sleep, or stretch of days off.
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