Abstract
This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Poor standards of handover threaten patient safety and continuity of care, contributing significantly to morbidity and mortality. Handover practices has risen to the forefront of the patient safety agenda, with a call to develop and implement undergraduate handover modules into undergraduate healthcare education. Recent systematic reviews demonstrate a common failure of educational interventions to demonstrate a theoretical and pedagogical framework underpinning the delivery of education and method of assessment. The authors developed and piloted a multi-disciplinary evidence-based undergraduate handover training program to health care students studying at a UK university. The intervention was designed based on underpinning educational theories. It has been developed in a manner that supports dissemination and replication, with a model that is cost effective. The intervention was designed to assess learner reaction, attitudes and confidence, and knowledge and skills. This was achieved through a pre- and post-intervention attitude questionnaire, and an externally validated pre- and post-intervention knowledge assessment. 46 undergraduate students participated, with a statistically significant increase in self-reported attitudes (p < 0.001) and knowledge (p < 0.001) following the handover intervention. Students participated from the disciplines of medicine, adult nursing, pharmacy, mental health nursing, paramedic practice and operating department practioners. This intervention serves as a significant resource for those looking to develop local interventions and stands as a truly multi-disciplinary approach to handover education, mirroring the clinical reality. The introduction of this handover intervention immediately improves the attitudes, knowledge and skills of undergraduate healthcare students. Future work should sample beyond the selected 6 professions, investigating the transference of outcomes to the workplace, as well as the impact on patient safety.
Highlights
Clinical handover may be defined as the transfer of professional responsibility and accountability for the care of a patient to another person or professional group on a temporary or permanent basis (Blyth, Bost, & Shiels, 2017; Kicken, Van der Klink, Barach, & Boshuizen, 2012)
We offered a non-compulsory handover workshop to all undergraduate students enrolled at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), training to become one of the following: doctor, pharmacist, adult nurse, mental health nurse, paramedic, operating department practitioner (ODP), child nurse or midwife. drawing from multiple schools and faculties
The development of handover curriculums is expected to grow in importance and urgency, in light of recommendations provided by the Junior Doctor Committee of the British Medical Association (Junior Doctors Committee, 2016), Royal College of Physicians (Royal College of Physicians, 2013) and government enquiries into patient safety (Department of Health, 2015; Zinn, 1995)
Summary
Clinical handover may be defined as the transfer of professional responsibility and accountability for the care of a patient to another person or professional group on a temporary or permanent basis (Blyth, Bost, & Shiels, 2017; Kicken, Van der Klink, Barach, & Boshuizen, 2012). The fundamental aim of handover is to achieve the effective communication of high-quality clinical information, enabling inter-professional collaboration, improvements in patient safety; and forms an integral component in the continuity of patient care (Gordon, Hill, Stojan, & Daniel, 2018). Poor standards of handover continue to threaten patient safety and continuity of care, primarily through nontransmission and miscommunication of critical information (World Health Organisation, 2007) This can lead to longer inpatient admissions and reducing levels of satisfaction patients have in their care. The fiscal implications of breakdowns in communication secondary to ineffective handovers has been widely documented (Donaldson, 2002), and is a major root cause factor in successful negligence claims, superseding inadequate skill levels of practitioners as the leading cause of permanent disability (Greenberg et al, 2007; Zinn, 1995)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
