Perceived Quality of Postoperative Handover by Saudi Nurses: A Single-Center Cross-Sectional Study

Handover is considered a basic nursing practice in which a patient's care information is moved to another nurse. Handover of patients after surgery is critical due to a number of care transitions, the presence of a surgical procedure, and the influence of anesthesia. High-quality postoperative handover is essential to safe patient care. Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the quality of current postoperative handover practices and the factors contributing to the quality of such processes, especially in Saudi Arabia.

The present research aimed at evaluating nurses' perceptions of postoperative handover quality and assessing factors impacting this process. This cross-sectional study targeted registered nurses with at least one year of professional experience who were actively involved in the conduction of postoperative handovers across various surgical departments. A total sample of 143 nurses was selected via a convenient sampling technique. Study instruments included Handover Quality Rating Form, patient status, and nurses' background characteristics.

Overall, postoperative handover quality was perceived as high by handing over and receiving nurses. Generally, 55.2% of nurses agreed on the different items supporting the positive circumstance for handover, and 92.3% agreed on the good conduct of handover compared to only 7.69% disagreement (p˂0.001). Significant agreements were observed for teamworking (p˂0.001), as well as four indicators (out of five) measuring the overall handover quality (p<0.001). The type of involved departments impacted significantly the handover quality perception (p=0.004). The respondents' age had a significant effect on quality (p=0.036), as well as circumstances of postoperative handover (p=0.046). Moreover, significant statistical differences were found for the circumstance of handover (p=0.031), as well as teamwork (p=0.019) according to the nurses' roles. Finally, the patient's blood circulation and respiration had a significant effect (p=0.023, p=0.033, respectively), as did the patient's level of consciousness (p=0.006) in the nurses' perception of the overall postoperative handover quality.

Postoperative handover quality was highly perceived by nurses. This research explored a multitude of factors such as patient health status and nurses' socio-demographic variables and their impact on nurses' perception of handover quality. Several nurse and patient-related factors were found to impact the handover process. This current research provided findings that could direct future improvements in nursing handover practice to ensure high-quality patient care.