Assessing Postoperative Handover Quality Among Nurses Across Surgical and Recovery Units: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Handover is considered a basic nursing practice in which a patient's care information is moved to another nurse. Handover of patients after surgery is critical due to a number of care transitions, the presence of a surgical procedure, and the influence of anesthesia. High-quality postoperative handover is essential to safe patient care. Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the quality of current postoperative handover practices and the factors contributing to the quality of such processes, especially in Saudi Arabia.Aim: The present research aimed at evaluating nurses' perceptions of postoperative handover quality and assessing factors impacting this process. This cross-sectional study targeted registered nurses with at least one year of professional experience who were actively involved in the conduction of postoperative handovers across various surgical departments. A total sample of 143 nurses was selected via a convenient sampling technique. Study instruments included Handover Quality Rating Form, patient status, and nurses’ background characteristics.Results: Overall, postoperative handover quality was perceived as high by handing over and receiving nurses. Generally, 55.2% of nurses agreed on the different items supporting the positive circumstance for handover, and 92.3% agreed on the good conduct of handover compared to only 7.69% disagreement (p˂0.001). Significant agreements were observed for teamworking (p˂0.001), as well as four indicators (out of five) measuring the overall handover quality (p<0.001). The type of involved departments impacted significantly the handover quality perception (p=0.004). The respondents' age had a significant effect on quality (p=0.036), as well as circumstances of postoperative handover (p=0.046). Moreover, significant statistical differences were found for the circumstance of handover (p=0.031), as well as teamwork (p=0.019) according to the nurses' roles. Finally, the patient's blood circulation and respiration had a significant effect (p=0.023, p=0.033, respectively), as did the patient’s level of consciousness (p=0.006) in the nurses’ perception of the overall postoperative handover quality.Conclusion: Postoperative handover quality was highly perceived by nurses. This research explored a multitude of factors such as patient health status and nurses’ socio-demographic variables and their impact on nurses’ perception of handover quality. Several nurse and patient-related factors were found to impact the handover process. This current research provided findings that could direct future improvements in nursing handover practice to ensure high-quality patient care.

(a) To explore the factors affecting quality in postoperative handovers as perceived by the different professional groups of clinicians involved. (b) To explore possible differences in perceptions of postoperative handover quality across professional groups and level of experience. High quality patient handovers after surgery and anaesthesia are important to ensure patient safety. There is a paucity of research describing contextual factors related to handover quality and the perspectives of different professional groups involved. A qualitative exploratory design was applied. A total of eight focus group interviews with 37 participants (29 nurses, eight doctors) were conducted. Anaesthesiologists, resident anaesthesiologists, nurse anaesthetists, postoperative care nurses and operating room nurses participated in the study. The interviews were conducted according to profession with two groups per profession: one with experienced clinicians and one with less experienced clinicians. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study adheres to the COREQ guidelines. The data analysis identified the following factors affecting postoperative handover quality: "timing and concurrency conflicts," "handover structure," "patient conditions," "individual characteristics of clinicians involved" and "team composition." Differences across professional groups and level of experience were related to responsibility, structure and adaptation. The professional groups involved describe the postoperative patient handover as a complex and variable process that needs to be carefully planned and executed according to the influencing factors. Variability exists across professional groups and level of experience. Health care providers need to be aware that postoperative handovers are affected by a set of factors related to internal (patient conditions, individual characteristics of clinicians involved and team composition) and external (timing and concurrency conflicts, handover structure) characteristics. These issues need to be acknowledged when procedures and routines for handover quality are designed, implemented and used.

To describe postoperative handover reporting and tasks in relation to patient condition and situational circumstances, in order to identify facilitators for best practices. High-quality handovers in postoperative settings are important for patient safety and continuity of care. There is a need to explore handover quality in relation to patient condition and other affecting factors. Observational mixed methods convergent design. Postoperative patient handovers were observed collecting quantitative (n=109) and qualitative data (n=48). Quantitative data were collected using the postoperative handover assessment tool (PoHAT), and a scoring system assessing patient condition. Qualitative data were collected using free-text field notes and an observational guide. The study adheres to the GRAMMS guideline for reporting mixed methods research. Information omissions in the handovers observed ranged from 1-13 (median 7). Handovers of vitally stable and comfortable patients were associated with more information omissions in the report. A total of 50 handovers (46%) were subjected to interruptions, and checklist compliance was low (13%, n=14). Thematic analysis of the qualitative data identified three themes: "adaptation of handover," "strategies for information transfer" and "contextual and individual factors." Factors facilitating best practices were related to adaptation of the handover to patient condition and situational circumstances, structured verbal reporting, providing patient assessments and dialogue within the handover team. The variations in items reported and tasks performed during the handovers observed were related to patient conditions, situational circumstances and low checklist compliance. Adaptation of the handover to patient condition and situation, structured reporting, dialogue within the team and patient assessments contributed to quality. It is important to acknowledge that handover quality is related to more than transfer of information. The present study has described how factors related to the patient and situation affect handover quality.

The quality of anesthetic handovers to postanesthesia care units (PACU) is known to be poor in adults, and only very limited reports are available regarding the quality of handovers in pediatric anesthesia. In particular, it is not known which and in what quality information is communicated. This current study investigated, therefore, the presence of any handover component as well as its consistency in a pediatric postanesthesia care unit. This prospective observational study evaluated postoperative anesthetic handovers to a pediatric PACU using a detailed checklist, comprising 55 possible items. The main outcome measure was the proportion of information verbally transmitted in relation to the written documentation within the anesthesia record. Four hundred and forty-three handovers were observed with two handovers excluded due to missing data. Type of surgery (93% [95% CI 91-95]) and any intra-operative regional anesthesia (89% [95% CI 85-94]) were most frequently communicated. Items such as ASA-PS (3% [95% CI 2-5]) and fluid management (4% of cases [95% CI 2-6]) were rarely handed over. Eleven of the 55 items contained within the checklist were communicated in more than 70% of patients. The observed handovers to PACU staff were incomplete and missing important information. However, omission of essential information potentially compromises patient safety. A standardized universal mandatory handover protocol following pediatric anesthesia is required.

A safe and efficient patient handover is important to ensure high-quality patient care and reduce the risk of patient harm. Few studies have explored handover activities beyond information transfer. The aims were to assess overall postoperative handover quality and relate quality assessments to handover circumstances, conduct, and teamwork and to compare transferring and receiving nurses' evaluations of handover quality. This was a cross-sectional study using the Norwegian Handover Quality Rating Form (N-HQRF). In addition, data were collected on nurses' evaluations of the patient condition, handover preparation, and participating nurses' clinical experience. Although total perceived handover quality was high in a large majority of cases, there were significant differences between transferring and receiving nurses' evaluations of the same handover. Lower-quality handovers had a higher frequency of time pressure, uncertainty, and patient-related problems. The findings point to the need to assess handover quality in a wider perspective. Handover circumstances might impact handover quality and should be considered when procedures for handover quality are designed and implemented.

The primary nursing method is expected to be a solution to improve the quality of handovers during the patient's treatment period. The competence of a PPJA is very decisive in coordinating any handover activities carried out while the patient is treated. This study aims to analyze the relationship between PPJA competence and the quality of patient handovers at Dr. M. Djamil Padang in 2020. The study used descriptive correlation with a cross sectional design. The sample was 170 nurses staff. The result of the analysis showsed that the proportion of nurses who assess the quality of handovers is good at 53.5%. The results of this study prove that there is a relationship between PPJA competence, knowledge aspects, skills aspects, attitude aspects, and clinical judgment aspects with the quality of patient handovers (p &lt;0.05). The most dominant factor related to the quality of patient handovers was PPJA skills. Hospital management is advised to improve PPJA competence by providing trainings that can improve PPJA competence.

This study was aimed at examining team communication during postoperative handover and its relationship to clinicians' self-ratings of handover quality. Adverse events can often be traced back to inadequate communication during patient handover. Research and improvement efforts have mostly focused on the information transfer function of patient handover. However, the specific mechanisms between handover communication processes among teams of transferring and receiving clinicians and handover quality are poorly understood. We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional observation study using a taxonomy for handover behaviors developed on the basis of established approaches for analyzing teamwork in health care. Immediately after the observation, transferring and receiving clinicians rated the quality of the handover using a structured tool for handover quality assessment. Handover communication during 117 handovers in three postoperative settings and its relationship to clinicians' self-ratings of handover quality were analyzed with the use of correlation analyses and analyses of variance. We identified significantly different patterns of handover communication between clinical settings and across handover roles. Assessments provided during handover were related to higher ratings of handover quality overall and to all four dimensions of handover quality identified in this study. If assessment was lacking, we observed compensatory information seeking by the receiving team. Handover quality is more than the correct, complete transmission of patient information. Assessments, including predictions or anticipated problems, are critical to the quality of postoperative handover. The identification of communication behaviors related to high-quality handovers is necessary to effectively support the design and evaluation of handover improvement efforts.

Background: Handover is considered a basic nursing practice in which a patient's care information is moved to another nurse. Handover of patients after surgery is critical due to number of care transitions, presence of a surgical procedure, and the influence of anesthesia. High-quality postoperative handover is essential to safe patient care. Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the quality of current postoperative handover practices and the factors contributing to quality of such process, especially in Saudi Arabia.

Anaesthesiology plays a key role in promoting safe perioperative care. This includes the perioperative phase in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) where problems with incomplete information transfer may have a negative impact on patient safety and can lead to patient harm. The objective of this study was to analyse information transfer during post-operative handovers in the PACU. With a self-developed checklist including 59 items the information transfer during post-operative handovers was documented and subsequently compared with patient information in anaesthesia records during a 2-month period. A total number of 790 handovers with duration of 73 ± 49 s was analysed. Few items were transferred in most of the cases such as type of surgery (97% of the cases), regional anaesthesia (94% of the cases) and cardiac instability (93% of the cases). However, some items were rarely transferred, such as American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status (7% of the cases), initiation of post-operative pain management (12% of the cases), antibiotic therapy (14% of the cases) and fluid management (15% of the cases). There was a slight correlation between amount of information transferred and duration of post-operative handovers (r = 0.5). The study shows that post-operative handovers in the PACU are in most cases incomplete. It appears useful to optimise the post-operative handover process, for example by implementing a standardised handover checklist.

Handovers from the cardiovascular operating room (CVOR) to the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU) are complex processes involving the transfer of information, equipment and responsibility, at a time when the...

Nurses' safety behaviors played an important role in patients' safety goal realization, and it varies from person to person. However, less research has explored the safety behavior level of psychiatric nurses and its influencing factors. Thus, this research aimed to assess the level of safety behavior and explore whether risk perception mediated the relationship between handover quality and safety behavior among psychiatric nurses. A total of 186 registered psychiatric nurses in a Chinese hospital were recruited for this study, through the convenience sampling method. Handover quality, risk perception, and safety behavior were measured. Hayes' PROCESS macro was used to evaluate the mediation of risk perception between handover quality and safety behavior. Scores of psychiatric nurses' safety behaviors were (47.98 ± 7.45), and handover quality and risk perception could predict the variance of nurses' safety behaviors. Risk perception could partially mediate between handover quality and nurses' safety behaviors, and the value of the mediating effect was 49.17%. Psychiatric nurses' safety behaviors have a large promotion space. Therefore, healthcare professionals should endeavor to improve the handover quality of psychiatric nurses and decrease their risk perception, thereby promoting nurses' safety behaviors.

Background: Effective nursing handover plays a vital role in maintaining patient safety and ensuring continuity of care, especially in surgical wards, where patients often have complex medical needs. At Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) Hyderabad, handovers are often inconsistent and informal, which can lead to miscommunication, treatment delays, and negative patient outcomes. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate current nursing handover practices in the surgical wards at LUH Hyderabad, identify the main challenges faced by nurses, and explore practical strategies such as standardized formats and structured communication to improve the quality and safety of handovers. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from February 10, 2025 to June 10, 2025, involving 90 nurses selected through purposive sampling. Data were gathered using a structured questionnaire divided into four sections: demographic details, current handover practices, challenges and quality of handovers, and suggestions for improvement. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 with descriptive statistics. Results: Of the 90 participants, most were staff nurses (53.3%) or nursing students (36.7%), and about one-third had 1–5 years of professional experience. The most common handover method combined verbal and written formats (44.4%), but only 40% used a structured tool like SBAR. Key obstacles included frequent interruptions (41.1%), time limitations (34.4%), and lack of proper training (34.4%). Just 41.1% of respondents felt that current practices effectively ensured patient safety. However, a large majority (81.1%) supported adopting SBAR, and popular suggestions for improvement included bedside handovers (33.3%) and the use of checklists (28.9%). Conclusion: The study revealed that nursing handovers at LUH Hyderabad are often unstructured, which compromises communication and patient safety. To address these gaps, there is a strong need for standardizing handovers through tools like SBAR, offering regular training, managing time more effectively, and improving the ward environment to support safer and more efficient communication.

Background: Breaking bad news encompasses conveying information that significantly impacts an individual&amp;apos;s view of their present and future. In emergency departments (ED), medical professionals often face the challenge of delivering distressing news. This study explored patient and family preferences for receiving bad news in the ED, considering sociodemographic factors such as education and gender. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 304 patients from the ED of King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The participants were divided into four groups based on their gender and educational level. A P-value of

BackgroundNursing handovers are a critical component of patient safety. Researchers have performed many primary studies in this field, mainly reporting findings from changes in nursing handover patterns. However, few quantitative studies have explored the factors that influence handover quality. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the quality of handovers and explore the associations between handover quality, job satisfaction, and group cohesion among psychiatric nurses.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 186 registered psychiatric nurses from a Chinese hospital, who responded to the Handover Evaluation Scale, McCloskey/Mueller Satisfaction Scale, and Group Cohesion Scale. Bootstrap analyses were used to evaluate the mediating effect between variables.ResultsThe average item score for handover quality was (5.85 ± 1.14), and job satisfaction and group cohesion could predict the variance of handover quality. Job satisfaction could partially mediate between group cohesion and handover quality, and the value of the mediating effect was 45.77%.ConclusionThe quality of psychiatric nursing handovers has enhanced space. Thus, hospital managers should take various measures to strengthen group cohesion and promote job satisfaction, both of which help improve the quality of psychiatric nursing handovers.

To improve handover communication and patient outcomes for postoperative admissions to a multidisciplinary PICU. Prospective cohort study. Multidisciplinary PICU in a university hospital. The multidisciplinary team responsible for postoperative PICU admissions and patient care, including attending, fellow, house staff physicians, and nurses from pediatric critical care medicine, surgery, and anesthesia. An online survey distributed to PICU, surgery, and anesthesia providers identified existing barriers and challenges to effective postoperative PICU handovers and guided the formation of a standard protocol. Handovers for postoperative PICU admissions were then directly observed for 3 months pre- and postimplementation of the protocol, with data collected on communication, metrics, and patient outcomes. Observations and data collection, as well as the online provider survey, were repeated approximately 1 year after handover protocol implementation. Survey data demonstrated increases in provider ratings of handover attendance, communication, and quality after implementation of the handover protocol (p < 0.001). Surgical report errors were eliminated (p = 0.03), and the prevalence of provider attendance for the handover duration increased from 39.3% to 68.2% (p = 0.01). Following protocol implementation, fewer patients experienced antibiotic delays (34.5% to 13.9%; p = 0.03) or required hemodynamic or respiratory interventions within the first 6 hours of PICU admission (24.6% to 9.1%; p = 0.04). Patients received their first dose of analgesia (62.3 to 17.4 min; p = 0.01) and had their admission laboratory studies sent (42.3 to 32.9 min; p = 0.04) more quickly. Data collected at 12 months postimplementation demonstrated sustained reductions in analgesia timing, antibiotic delays, and handover barriers. Postoperative communication and patient outcomes can be improved and sustained over time with implementation of a standardized handover protocol.