INTRODUCTION
Continuity of care is an essential objective promoted in nursing practice (Messam and Pettifer, 2009) and the indispensable component in achieving an effective transfer of patient’s care between health practitioners are often referred to as clinical handover (Evan et al., 2012). The term ‘handover’ is acknowledged as a moment of making a significant transition in maintaining patients’ continuity of care which involves a process whereby a patient is ‘handed over’ from one clinician to another (Anderson et al., 2010). In a hospital survey conducted in 2009 on patient safety-culture, 49% of the participants who were hospital staff reported that relevant patient care information where often lost during the process of shift changes
Continuity of care is an essential objective promoted in nursing practice (Messam and Pettifer, 2009) and the indispensable component in achieving an effective transfer of patient’s care between health practitioners are often referred to as clinical handover (Evan et al., 2012). The term ‘handover’ is acknowledged as a moment of making a significant transition in maintaining patients’ continuity of care which involves a process whereby a patient is ‘handed over’ from one clinician to another (Anderson et al., 2010). In a hospital survey conducted in 2009 on patient safety-culture, 49% of the participants who were hospital staff reported that relevant patient care information where often lost during the process of shift changes