Handovers in Healthcare
Handovers in Healthcare
Michelle Raduma Tomās, School of Psychology, michelleraduma@abdn.ac.uk , Rhona Flin, Steven Yule, Steven Close
This PhD project (2007-10) is funded by the Scottish Funding Council and is investigating doctors' shift handovers in Acute Medical Admissions Units. As overcoming problems in communication and coordination among healthcare practitioners remains a critical challenge to the improvement of patient safety, this project examines risks for communication failures during healthcare handovers, and in particular those failures that occur at shift-change. A literature review was conducted on doctors' handover processes. Hierarchical Task Analysis and Failure Modes Effects Analysis are being used to denote doctors' shift handover processes in Acute Medical Medical Admissions Units in two large Scottish hospitals.
Safe Handover - Handover practices assuring patient safety at care transitions from anaesthesia
Dr Tanja Manser, Prof Rhona Flin, School of Psychology. r.flin@abdn.ac.uk
This research project is funded by the European Commission (FP7 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship) and aims at identifying handover strategies that help clinicians to assure continuity of care and maintain safety of surgical patients during care transitions between anaesthesia and the recovery room or the intensive care unit (ICU). The research project examines effectiveness of different handover practices by using interviews to extract aspects of current handover practice which help to create and maintain safety and by observing handovers and assessing clinicians views on their quality and safety. Ultimately, the results of this study will contribute to the advancement of patient safety by providing important input on effective patient handover guidelines and training modules that can be integrated into the education of undergraduate and practising health professionals.