Involving mental health consumers in nursing handover: A qualitative study of nursing views of the practice and its implementation

Abstract

Nursing handover occurs between shifts and is an important means of communication and information exchange around consumer care. The involvement of consumers in nursing handover, known as ‘bedside handover’, is well established within general health settings and promotes a patient‐centred approach to care. Bedside handover represents an opportunity for mental health settings to consolidate recovery‐oriented principles, albeit with some unique challenges in the way that involving consumers in nursing handover is implemented. This qualitative descriptive study explores the views of nursing staff and nursing managers about involving consumers in nursing handover and the process of implementation across five mental health inpatient units in Australia. The study took place in a local health district covering regional and rural areas of New South Wales that had issued a directive to implement bedside handover. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was applied to this study. Six focus groups were held with nursing staff (n = 22), and eleven individual interviews were undertaken with nursing managers to explore their perceptions of bedside handover and its implications for nursing practice. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Data from focus groups and interviews were analysed separately and then combined to generate three themes: (i) the mental health context is different; (ii) protecting consumer privacy and confidentiality; and (iii) it might make things worse. The findings provide insights into both the challenges, and the process of involving consumers in nursing handover within mental health settings and provides guidance for future implementation.

Nursing handover involving consumers on inpatient mental healthcare units: A qualitative exploration of the consumers’ perspective

“…2020; Mullen et al . 2020). During nursing handover involving consumers, consumers had the nurses’ full attention and experienced more privacy.…”

“…Olasoji et al (2019Olasoji et al ( , 2020a stress the cruciality of building a strong relationship between consumers and nurses in mental health care, and the advantages this has for the care process. However, consumers indicate that meaningful interactions with nurses are limited in mental healthcare units, because nurses are often very busy (Mullen et al 2020).…”

“…Mental healthcare consumers also indicate that they would like to connect more with the nursing staff during handover and share with them how they are doing each day. Being involved in the handover could result in feeling more informed about the consumers' progress and increase empathy among nurses on the difficulties of being a mental healthcare consumer (Mullen et al 2020).…”

“…They believe that information in the mental healthcare ward is more sensitive and the sharing of this information with the consumer could cause distress. Nurses also worry about privacy issues, since consumers often share rooms (Mullen et al 2020). However, concerns reduce significantly after following a training program.…”

“…Nurses also worry about privacy issues, since consumers often share rooms (Mullen et al . 2020). However, concerns reduce significantly after following a training program.…”