Effective nursing shift handover in critical care: A concept analysis

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Ineffective shift handover is a primary cause of adverse events in healthcare.
• Nursing handover in intensive care units (ICUs) is particularly complex due to patient acuity.
• A clear understanding of effective handover is lacking, despite its critical importance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze and define the concept of effective nursing shift handover in critical care settings.
• To identify the essential attributes, antecedents, and consequences of effective handover.
• To establish a foundation for developing tools to measure handover effectiveness in ICUs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Walker and Avant's eight-step approach for concept analysis.
• Defined effective handover as an interactive process for transferring patient information.
• Identified content-related and process-related attributes, antecedents, and consequences.

Main Results:

• Effective handover involves two nurses interactively transferring adequate, recent, patient-specific information.
• Key attributes include content and process elements.
• Antecedents encompass organizational support, interpersonal relationships, and the work environment.
• Consequences include enhanced patient and nurse satisfaction, improved care quality, and continuity of care.

Conclusions:

• A clear definition of effective nursing handover in critical care has been established.
• This definition serves as a basis for concept validation and the development of measurement instruments.
• Improving handover practices is essential for patient safety and quality of care in ICUs.