Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Committee Chair

Candice Rome

Abstract

In today’s health care environment, nurses are faced with caring for an increased number of patients with more complex issues. In caring for these complex patients, communication among nurses becomes an essential piece of patient care. Handover provides nurses the opportunity to share patient information to achieve positive patient outcomes. When poor patient outcomes became linked to poor communication during handover, recommendations for a standardized handover form emerged. Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendations (SBAR) is an example of a standardized handover form which provides structure to the handover process and decreases gaps in patient information. The aim of this descriptive study was to evaluate nurses’ perception of the handover process. To guide the study, Imogene King’s Goal Attainment Theory provided the framework. The concepts of the goal attainment theory offer a way to organize patient information to meet the needs of the triad of systems to ultimately improve patient care. The study involved the Handover Evaluation Scale (HES) survey which evaluated nurses’ perceptions pre- and post-SBAR implementation at a 143-bed hospital. Prior to SBAR implementation, education was provided to introduce SBAR to the registered nurses employed at the facility. Utilization of the SBAR form occurred over a four-week period. Post-SBAR implementation found a significant difference in the quality of information provided during handover while also decreasing documentation time and handover time. This study builds evidence that quality information is provided during handover with the use of a standardized form.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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