Strengthening surgical handover: Developing and evaluating the effectiveness of a handover tool to improve patient safety.

ABSTRACT: The European Working Time Directive and economic challenges have led to a paradigm of shift-work becoming common, and yet the continuation of high-quality patient care remains paramount. Effective and safe transfer of clinical information is critical as emphasised by the Royal College of Surgeons document 'Safe handover: Guidance from the Working Time Directive working party (March 2007)'. The aim of this project was to design and implement a handover proforma in order to deliver a more efficient and safer system for patient care over the weekend. The surgical weekend handover proforma was designed following consultation with nursing and medical colleagues. It included a traffic light scoring system to alert the on-call team of the urgency of clinical review. An educational session was del

SUBMITTER: Din N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4652679 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature