Nursing Hand-Off CommunicationRobert Ross, RN, MSN student

Internet in Education EME 6053

University of South Florida

Definition

• Nursing hand-off can be defined as a communication between two shifts of nurses occurring at the transfer of responsibility for a patient to include an opportunity to ask questions, clarify and confirm (Friesen, 2009)

Information is exchanged about the patient such as patient name, IV drips, meds, treatments, appointments, etc.

Definition (cont’d)

• Hand-off communication is critical for patient safety as missed information could be harmful to the patient

• A study in Seattle concluded that up to 65% of sentinel events could be linked to poor communication between healthcare personnel

Why is it needed?

•Patient name, age , sex

•Diagnosis

•Medications

•Most recent VS

•Critical labs

•Changes in health status/condition

Elements of a Hand-off

•A lack of standardization among the different types of hand-offs can potentially cause problems

•The same form can also cut down wasted time in attempting to track down missing information

Standardization

• Effective hand-off communication can significantly reduce potential errors in patient care

• Hand-offs are done to communicate patient information across shifts and to help maintain a high quality of care

• Facility wide standardization would help reduce redundancy and improve communication

Summary

A last note about effective communication