Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 9, 2026
Setting Up a Stroke Team Algorithm and Conducting Simulation-based Training in the Emergency Department - A Practical Guide
Published on: January 15, 2017
Paediatric team handover: a time to learn?
Stephen Bradley1, John P Egan2, Marcus Henning3
1Paediatrician, Department of Paediatrics, Rotorua Hospital, Rotorua.
Insights
Paediatric team handovers offer valuable learning opportunities for medical professionals and students. These learning moments often occur informally and implicitly during patient information exchange.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Clinical Handovers
- Paediatric Care
Background:
- Team handovers are crucial for patient information exchange in paediatric settings.
- Existing literature suggests potential for learning during these clinical exchanges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the existence and utilization of learning opportunities within paediatric team handovers.
- To understand how medical professionals and students engage with learning during handovers in New Zealand.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative, two-site case study in two New Zealand paediatric departments.
- Interviews conducted with 29 participants (medical students, junior doctors, consultants).
- Thematic analysis using a general inductive approach.
Main Results:
- Patient information transfer was the primary handover function.
- Learning was identified as a key, albeit secondary, component.
- Learning opportunities were predominantly informal, opportunistic, and patient-specific.
- Implicit learning was a common feature of the handover experience.
Conclusions:
- Learning opportunities are present and utilized, often implicitly or opportunistically, within paediatric team handovers.
- A reflective approach can enhance educational experiences for trainees.
- Team handovers represent significant clinical workplace learning events.
Aim:
Paediatric team handovers provide medical professionals and students with the opportunity to exchange clinically relevant information about patients. This study explored the extent to which learning opportunities existed and were utilised within paediatric team handovers in New Zealand secondary hospitals.
Methods:
We undertook a qualitative, two-site case study within two paediatric departments in 2014 and 2015, and interviewed 29 participants, including medical students, junior doctors and consultants. We conducted a thematic analysis using a general inductive approach.
Results:
Participants' narratives revealed that safe transfer of pertinent patient information between clinicians was the primary function of team handover. They described learning as an additional key component. Most learning opportunities were reported to be informal and opportunistic, related to the specific patients whose care was discussed within each handover. Handover team members indicated that implicit learning occurred as a feature of their handover experience.
Conclusions:
Learning opportunities exist within team handovers and the associated learning frequently occurs either opportunistically or implicitly. Adoption of a reflective approach to learning opportunities is likely to result in improved educational experiences for handover participants, particularly medical students and junior doctors. Handover represents a clinical event within which valuable workplace learning occurs.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Interdisciplinary Care: The Health Care Team-I
Physicians
The physician's primary responsibility is to diagnose illness and direct the medical or surgical treatment of the condition. The authority to admit patients to a healthcare agency or institution and practice care within that setting is granted to physicians by the healthcare agency or institution...
01:18Interdisciplinary Care: The Health Care Team-II
Physical Therapist
A physical therapist (PT) aims to restore function or prevent additional impairment in a patient following an injury or disease. Massage, heat, cold, water, sonar waves, exercises, and electrical stimulation are some treatments used by PTs to treat...
01:14Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
01:27Associative Learning
Classical conditioning, also known...
01:22Purposive Learning
01:12Observational Learning