Audit of handover in an ENT unit

Abstract

We demonstrated a substantial improvement in the quality and completeness of written handover, comparing the second and first audit periods.

Nursing bedside clinical handover – an integrated review of issues and tools

“…). Studies found in the literature where clinical handover had undergone an evaluation method ranged from questionnaires (which are reliant on the respondent providing open and honest response regarding their own practice) to action research studies where observational behaviour was viewed then critiqued, this is open to the observer's interpretation of the event (Bomba & Prakash , Ellul & Robson , Johnson et al . ).…”

Interventions employed to improve intrahospital handover: a systematic review

“…Ten studies19 21 26 27 31 32 39 41 44 46 gave no information on the number of handovers they included (see online supplementary table S1).…”

“…Seven studies gave no information on any component of their study design timeline34–37 41–43 and 14 gave no information on one or more study timeline components 19 21–23 25 29–32 39 40 45–47…”

“…Based on the measures in the papers chosen for inclusion, we chose to group study outcome measures, as relating to: Information transfer, Staff satisfaction, Handover duration, Clinical outcomes and Compliance with handover protocol. Two studies evaluated their interventions with two outcome measures;39 41 six used three;19 23 26 27 42 47 one study used four;22 and one used five outcome measures 36. There were no primary outcome measures in common between all the studies (see online supplementary table S2).…”

“…Seventeen studies reported a statistically significant change in at least one of their outcome measures,20 24 25 28–35 37 38 43–46 while 10 did not 19 22 23 26 27 36 39 41 42 47. Improvements in information transfer were the most commonly reported successes, being found in more than half of the studies examining this,20 24 25 28 29 32 33 37 38 43–45 and staff satisfaction was the next most commonly improved in 35% of studies28–32 34 35 43–46—a similar proportion to those reporting improvements in time taken and compliance with protocols.…”