EFFICIENCY OF PATIENT INFORMATION HANDOVER

Abstract

Background: Handover is an essential activity in nursing because it is the communication between nurses from the previous shifts to the next changes. It is the transfer of patients’ information accurately. Efficient data forwarding will provide patients with continuous and quality of care.

Aims: To develop SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation) hand over model, and to study the completeness of SBAR hand over regarding the communication error in SBAR hand over and the satisfaction of professional nurses at the operational level who use SBAR.

Methods: This was a research and development method (R&D) conducted in Lampang Hospital, Thailand. The study samples were 102 registered nurses working in 8 patient wards. The samples were chosen through purposive sampling. The research tools were: 1) SBAR hand over model developed by the researcher, and 2) Questionnaire for using SBAR hand over model. The data were collected through a questionnaire, which included the SBAR timing record format and satisfaction questionnaire via used SBAR. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (percentage, mean, and standard deviation).

Results: Participants who used SBAR for hand over, reported that the completeness of data was 79.06%. The reported incidents of miscommunication were three times, decrease to 42.86%. The average satisfaction level was 76.75%, increased from 10.67%. The average spend time was 3.26 minutes per person and 46.03 minutes per shift. This is no different from the original model.

Conclusion and Recommendations: SBAR can reduce the discrepancy of communication during hand over. However, it is not possible to reduce the transmission time including overall satisfaction. Quality assurance must be managed using the PDCA Demand Cycle to study the results in the long run as well as extending the results to another ward.