NURSING HANDOVER

Nursing Handover

Nursing Handover

Introduction

Health care provisions are essential for the survival and well being of any society. In those societies where health care facilities are conveniently accessible to the common men, prosperity and harmony reigns supreme. Nursing plays a central role in delivering health care, and so is critical to any nation's well-being. No other health care professional has such a vast and dynamic role. Nursing is defined as a set of actions that are aimed at providing care to individuals who are ill, mentally incapable, or dying. This is a profession for providing help and assistance to those already suffering (Sexton, 2004).

Effective communication among health professionals is the key to ensuring quality care in clinical practice. One form of communication, clinical handover, has received increasing international attention. Clinical handover has been defined as the transfer of responsibility and/or accountability for patient care from one provider or team of providers to another. Nursing handover at the bedside has been identified as an important strategy to improve patient-centred care, one aspect in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Transforming Care at the Bedside program. We report here on a case study of six wards in two hospitals investigating the structural elements, processes used to transfer knowledge and perceived outcomes of bedside nursing handovers (Sexton, 2004).

Nursing Handover

The most crucial part of a nurse's shift is probably the nursing handover report. This is the process through which relevant data regarding the patient is transferred to the nurse of the next shift. It also provides a resource manage time to the leader of the team and for the follow up of his/her wards' nurses' financial costs. These handovers are usually taken place outside the wards and in an office. However, this process is time consuming and sometimes leads to unprofessional and irrelevant reporting. Passing of the data can be done through written reports can be done through written reports, bedside reporting and tape recording. These methods are more effective, more applicable to practice and refine the entire procedures (Sexton, 2004).

The nurses transfer the patients' data to one another to make certain that the care is continuous and proper. They have to coordinate with the health care experts, medical staff and also the relatives of the patient to align the further care and discharge plans. These formal data transfers usually occur during the nursing written records or oral reports; during the nursing activities this reporting is informal.

Process of Nursing Handovers

The process of handover start by creating a written or recorded report of each of the patient assigned to the nurse. The nurse makes sure that the all the facts and details are present in the report. A nurse can ask further details or clarify the facts from the other team members. During the nurse's shift, the details about all the treatments and care given to the patient are written in the report. The nurse should not use abbreviations for the medical and nursing terms as it would lead to confusions and ...