International journal of evidence-based healthcare
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Int J Evid Based Healthc · Dec 2012
Patient handover in the oncology setting: an evidence utilisation project.
Handover is an essential activity in nursing and is an integral part of communication as it will improve and ensure quality patient care in clinical practice. However, handover could be ineffective and harmful to patients and nurses if the information communicated is incorrect, irrelevant or omitted. Thus to achieve optimal care as well as to maintain patient safety, these information needs to be accurately communicated. In recent time, registered nurses in the ward have been staying late beyond their working hours as handover is taking more time than is required. The nurses were taking almost an hour to hand over their reports to the oncoming staff. There was also a lot of distraction and interruption which further prolonged the time spent handing over. This has led to much unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the ward. In addition, it also took the registered nurses away from direct clinical care. ⋯ This project not only showed a significant improvement in the inter-shift patient handover, but also shortened the duration of handover by 21.67 min per registered nurse. This project also showed that commitment, acceptance, enthusiasm and support from all the registered nurses and stakeholders are essential contributing factors towards the success of improving clinical practice. Utilising the JBI PACES approach of audit and feedback has helped in reducing the time spent on handover. It has demonstrated that the use of evidence to improve clinical practice is possible in a challenging acute care environment.