Impact of a blended curriculum on nursing handover quality: a quality improvement project

The Nursing Inter Shift Handover: A Moment of Care for Patients and Their Family Caregivers

Precedents: The transfer between nursing shifts must guarantee the quality of care for patients and their families in the hospital. This study aimed to transform the handover between nursing shifts to strengthen the care capacity of patients and their family caregivers, and improve the care capacity of nursing staff, in a Latin American university hospital. Methods: This is a Nursing Methodology Research developed in the following phases: (a) identification of the best handover practices between nursing shifts to apply them within the institutional culture; (2) diagnosis of the transfer between shifts in the hospital; (3) design and validation of the transformation proposal; (4) measurement of transfer indicators; and (5) definition of a path to improve this transfer. Results: The proposal developed focuses on the patient and their family caregiver. The proposed protocol considered the perspective of the care recipients, the nursing staff, and the best available evidence. The overall transfer rating over 10 months went from 65% to 84%. Conclusions: The adjustment to the transfer process made it possible to strengthen the care capacity of patients and their family caregivers and improve the care capacity of the nursing staff.

Educational interventions for improving nursing shift handovers: A systematic review

AIM

This study analyzed the components of educational interventions for handovers among nursing students and nurses.

BACKGROUND

A handover is a communication process that occurs when patient care responsibilities and rights are transferred from one nurse to another. This process is important in nursing to ensure the continuity of nursing care and patient safety.

DESIGN

A systematic literature review of Korean and international studies was conducted to identify the components of handover educational programs for nursing students and nurses and analyze their effects, thereby providing a basis for the further development of these programs.

METHODS

Studies published in English or Korean no later than June 30, 2022, were found via an electronic database search using the MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL databases. Three reviewers independently evaluated all the studies. These studies focused on educational interventions for nursing students and nurses regarding covering shift-to-shift nursing handovers. After reviewing 1971 extracted articles, 18 satisfied the inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

Nine articles involved nursing students and nine involved nurses. Four articles covered bedside handovers as educational topics. Educational methods included lectures and active practice. Active practice comprised demonstrations, role-play, and feedback. The main content areas of the educational programs were an introduction to handovers; training regarding how to extract important information for handovers; and strategies using informatic and thematic structures, such as mnemonics, and concept mapping. The patient cases for role-play were provided in forms of written scenarios, virtual electronic charts, videos, scenario-based simulated situations, and actual patient cases assigned in clinical practice. The effects of the educational interventions were evaluated regarding knowledge, performance, and self-efficacy. Performance and self-efficacy were significantly higher in a study in which the intervention group was provided additional individual feedback compared to the control group and in a study in which the intervention group received multiple additional practice opportunities.

CONCLUSIONS

Handover education for nursing students and nurses should include individual feedback, demonstrations, and opportunities to practice to improve their performance and self-efficacy. Feedback methods should be further developed to increase the effectiveness of educational programs. Sample cases involving patients should be devised to increase these opportunities, and methods for improving educator efficiency should be identified.

Effective nursing shift handover in critical care: A concept analysis

To explore the concept of effective shift handover in critical care settings. Ineffective handover is one of the leading causes of adverse events in healthcare settings. Nursing shift handover in the intensive care unit (ICU) is more complex and detailed than in other in-patient wards due to the complexity of medical issues experienced by ICU patients. It is, therefore, critical that nurses be able to conduct handover effectively. Despite the importance of handover, the definition and attributes of effective handover are not clearly understood. Walker and Avant's eight-step approach to concept analysis. Effective handover in nursing is an interactive process between two nurses, resulting in the direct transfer of adequate patient-specific recent information in a manner that creates a shared understanding of information. Its defining attributes are (1) content-related and (2) process-related attributes. The antecedents of effective handover are organizational support, interpersonal relationship, and work environment. Its consequences include patient and nurse satisfaction, improved care, and continuity of care. Empirical referents include several tools developed to measure some of the effective handover attributes. The definition provides a connotative meaning and is the first step toward concept validation and instrument development to measure effective handover practice in the ICU.

Greater accountability in nursing handover

Nursing handover exemplifies both the nurse's professional ethics and the profession's integrity. The article by Yetti et al. acknowledges the critical role of structure and process in handover implementation. At the same time, they emphasised the fundamental necessity to establish and update handover guidelines. I assert that effective patient handover practices do not simply happen; instead, nurses require pertinent educational support. It is also pivotal to develop greater professional accountability throughout the handover process. The responsibility for ensuring consistent handover quality should be shared between nurse managers and those who do the actual handover practices.