Critical Care Nurses' Views on Handover in Chitwan, Nepal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1891/1748-6254.13.1.36Keywords:
communication, nursing handover, nurses' shift change report, critical care nurseAbstract
Background and Objectives: The nurses shift handover is an integral component of nursing care and a highly complex process of communication aimed at improving patients' outcomes. Despite its significance, there is no universal approach to handover protocols. Our aim was to explore critical care nurses views on handover and to explore the association between views of handover and selected socio demographic variables.
Method and Materials: Descriptive cross-sectional research design with 108 nurses working in adult critical care units at two tertiary teaching hospitals of the Chitwan district, Nepal, by using a nonprobability, enumerative sampling technique. Data were collected through a Likert-5 scale questionnaire exploring views on the quality and effectiveness of handover among nurses. Median was used to reflect nurses' views and a cutoff value of median (99) was used to discriminate between positive and negative views. Chi square was used to test the association between views and selected sociodemographic variables.
Results: The study findings revealed that only 50.9% of the nurses had positive views regarding handover. The significant associated variables were working hospital, working unit, level of work performance and duration of handover (p = 0.002, p = 0.002, p = 0.029, p = 0.004 respectively).
Conclusion: The findings of the present study point out the need for nurses to adhere to a handover protocol, as well as the need to develop a practical and comprehensive standardized protocol to transmit crucial and relevant information related to patient care, in order to enhance the safety of nursing practice in the area of basic nursing care and communication about patients' condition.
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