The nurses' own views about the inter-shift handover process

Background: Nursing handovers provide critical information on the patient, requiring special communication skills and techniques between the nurses' shift-change. Aim: Current study investigates the experiences/views of nurses regarding the handover process. Methods: An observation method was applied assesing 22 interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire and an audio recording system throughout mixed content analysis. Results: Nursing handover mainly involves medical instructions, detailed records of each patient's general condition or drug administration guidelines. Nurses determined which pieces of information were significant to transfer to the next shift were the medical instructions, the patient's hemodynamic condition and the care plans implemented by the previous nurse. The information was mainly drawn from events occurring in the previous 24 h, from the medical instructions, or the doctors and the nursing outcomes, and to a lesser extent from the events of the previous shifts and the nursing folders. None of the participants had received, as they stated, any training in the handover process. Conclusions: It is highlighting the importance of organized, standardized and up-to-date handovers, and the fundamental part they play in the health care system.