Influence of Nurses Handover Styles on Selected Patient Safety Indicators

Abstract

Worldwide, potentially preventable adverse events during hospital care are still common causes of mortality and serious morbidities for patients. Safety improvements has been a real challenge to health care organizations over the last two decades. Continuity management in inpatient care is essential for safe and effective care to minimize medical errors. Good communication is critical in nursing team to achieve this. Nursing handover ensures such continuity of care throughout entire patient hospital stay. The accuracy and completeness of this process are determinants of patient safety. Several handover styles are used by nurses, namely oral, written, and bedside. The influence of these different styles used on patient safety is deemed to be studied. This study aim was to examine the influence of three different nurses’ handover styles on selected patient safety indicators. The selected patient safety indicators are hospital-acquired infections, decubitus ulcer, patient fall, and medication errors. The three handover styles are oral, written, and bedside.