Emergency Patient Handoffs: Identifying Essential Elements and Developing an Evidence-Based Training Tool

Patient handoffs between care teams have been recognized as a major patient safety risk due to inadequate exchange or loss of critical information, especially during emergent patient transfers. The purpose of this literature review was to identify the essential elements of effective patient handoffs in emergency situations to develop a standardized tool to support a structured patient handoff procedure capable of guiding education and training.

A literature search of handoff procedures and patient transfers was conducted using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and PubMed between 2008 and 2015.

Two global themes were identified-Crew Interactions, and Essential Data Elements-resulting in a tool containing 30 objective and five subjective items.

Through the literature review, synthesis, and workgroup consensus, we developed a standardized tool to guide standardized education, training, and future inquiry in prehospital and emergent patient handoffs. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2018;49(1):34-41.