Using a simulation-based approach to promote structured and interactive nursing clinical handover: a pre- and post-evaluation pilot study in bilingual Hong Kong

Abstract

Effective clinical nursing handover involves the transfer of responsibility and accountability for patient care between nurses, leading to better patient safety and continuity of care. Nurses in bilingual contexts, such as Hong Kong – where nurses are trained in English but communicate in Cantonese – may find it challenging to deliver a safe clinical handover. This article reports a pilot study in which a simulation-based approach is being developed to enhance nursing handover with structured and interactive interactions, using handover protocols such as ISBAR (introduction, situation, background, assessment, recommendation and readback) and CARE-team (connect, ask, respond, empathise) protocols in a bilingual context. The study has a pre‐ and post-evaluation design involving a questionnaire survey before and after a 4‐hour workshop. Fourteen selected bilingual nurses in Hong Kong were trained according to the ISBAR and CARE-team protocols, and their perceptions of complete and structured handovers were evaluated before and after training using the questionnaire. The nurses reported that they were more self-confident in their handover experiences, with a deeper understanding of ISBAR and CARE-team protocols after the simulation-based training intervention, leading to better (i.e., more structured and interactive) clinical handover between nurses. Overall, the staff perceived their handover communication to have improved using simulation-based training.

The effects of electronic nursing handover on patient safety in the general (non-COVID-19) and COVID-19 intensive care units: a quasi-experimental study

“…After conducting the simulation-based training, nurses reported that they carried out the clinical handover with more confidence and that this approach led them to have more structured and interactive clinical handovers. Overall, it was indicated that nurses’ communication significantly improved during the handover [ 32 ].…”

Implementing a ward‐level intervention to improve nursing handover communication with a focus on bedside handover—A qualitative study

“…Strategies to confirm reliability included using a structured nursing handover observation tool when recording observations, checking verbatim transcripts for accuracy and, for the linguistic analysis, discussing informational and interactional categories with the research team. Pre‐post studies have validated the use of the ISBAR and CARE protocols to improve nursing handover (Pun, 2023; Slade et al., 2018), and the training has been adapted in nursing trials to improve patient safety (Liu et al., 2023; Rihari‐Thomas et al., 2022). The study is reported in line with the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (O'Brien et al., 2014) and the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (Tong et al., 2007) (Appendix S7).…”

Dampak Penggunaan Metode Komunikasi ISBAR terhadap Pelaksanaan Keselamatan Pasien di Rumah Sakit: Literature Review

“…The National Acute Medicine Proggramme mengusulkan agar ISBAR digunakan sebagai model yang digunakan semua staf layanan kesehatan untuk menyusun komunikasi klinis. Sturktur komunikasi ISBAR merupakan adaptasi dari SBAR, sebuah sistem yang dikembangkan oleh Angkatan Laut Amerika Serikat (AS) untuk memastikan komunikasi yang jelas dan tepat antara kapal selam nuklir (Bergess et al, 2020) dan mulai diadopsi oleh layanan kesehatan masyarakat pada tahun 2000-an (17). Sejak ISBAR diperkenalkan, beberapa penelitian menunjukkan adanya peningkatan dalam hal kerja sama, komunikasi, dan keselamatan pasien (9,18).…”