Bedside handover enables the patient and their family to contribute and verify vital information about themselves. (Lu, Kerr, & McKinlay, 2013) This active involvement in their own care is likely to reduce the risk of them experiencing miscommunication-related adverse events (Lu, Kerr, & McKinlay, 2013).
Effective communication of health-care information is pivotal to ensuring continuity of patient care and safety (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013).
Handover is considered a ‘high risk activity that can be associated with serious adverse events due to poor communication and inaccurate or lacking information’ 3 (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Almost 70% of all sentinel events reported in the USA are known to result from ineffective handover (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Nearly one-quarter of adverse events in Victoria 5 and Western Australia 6 have also been identified as a breakdown in communications between healthcare professionals (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Throughout Australia, analysis of 25,000 to …show more content…
Kerr et al. state participants believe bedside handover helps to strengthen their partnership with the nurse as they can provide the nurse with accurate and up-to-date information (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Bedside handover was also viewed as an opportunity for family and next of kin to provide relevant information about the patient (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013).
The nurses abilty to visualise the patient at the start of a shift enables them to provide a more comprehensive assessment of their patient (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). This includes reading charts and documentation which leads to the identification of missing information and clarification of nursing care plans (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Pertinent information exchanged is thus less subjective, more data-driven, reliable and valid (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay,
Effective communication of health-care information is pivotal to ensuring continuity of patient care and safety (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013).
Handover is considered a ‘high risk activity that can be associated with serious adverse events due to poor communication and inaccurate or lacking information’ 3 (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Almost 70% of all sentinel events reported in the USA are known to result from ineffective handover (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Nearly one-quarter of adverse events in Victoria 5 and Western Australia 6 have also been identified as a breakdown in communications between healthcare professionals (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Throughout Australia, analysis of 25,000 to …show more content…
Kerr et al. state participants believe bedside handover helps to strengthen their partnership with the nurse as they can provide the nurse with accurate and up-to-date information (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Bedside handover was also viewed as an opportunity for family and next of kin to provide relevant information about the patient (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013).
The nurses abilty to visualise the patient at the start of a shift enables them to provide a more comprehensive assessment of their patient (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). This includes reading charts and documentation which leads to the identification of missing information and clarification of nursing care plans (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay, 2013). Pertinent information exchanged is thus less subjective, more data-driven, reliable and valid (Kerr, Lu, & McKinlay,