Original Article

Advancing the Evidence Base for a Standardized Provider Handover Structure: Using Staff Nurse Descriptions of Information Needed to Deliver Competent Care

Jeffrey M. Adams, PhD, RN; Tanya Osborne-McKenzie, MSN, MBA, HCM, RN, CNML

  • The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing
  • June 2012 - Volume 43 · Issue 6: 261-266
  • DOI: 10.3928/00220124-20120215-88
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Abstract

Using existing gold standard structures to manage “handover” was a conceptual communication challenge for nurses involved in critically important shift-to-shift transitions in this study, which was conducted at a Central Coast California District Hospital. An extensive body of literature identifies poor communication as jeopardizing patient safety, quality, and continuity of care. Researchers who used the prevailing structures, Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR), used by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Communication During Patient Handover (CDPH), sanctioned by The Joint Commission (TJC), had difficulty categorizing content described by nurses as necessary to the delivery of competent care. This article describes a study that resulted in an alternative structure for handover, D-BANQ, which aligns with prevailing WHO-SBAR and TJC-CDPH handover structures and provides an easy-to-follow chronological format for the content that nurses identified as necessary to communicate during this important nursing activity.

AUTHORS

Dr. Adams is Nurse Scientist, The Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research and The Center for Innovations in Patient Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Osborne-McKenzie is Critical Care Director, Critical Care, Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, Salinas, California.

This research was supported in part by a Sigma Theta Tau Rho Chapter Research Grant and a Yvonne L. Munn Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant.

The authors thank Lynda Brandt, Susan Lee, Irene Ramirez Neumeister, Marion Rideout, and the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System Handover Team for their contributions to the development of this manuscript.

Address correspondence to Jeffrey M. Adams, PhD, RN, The Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, 275 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114. E-mail: jadams9@partners.org

Received: September 07, 2011
Accepted: January 17, 2012
Posted Online: February 22, 2012

doi: 10.3928/00220124-20120215-88

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