What is a handover? Clinical handovers are types of staff communications
undertaken by all healthcare professionals at various times during
shifts or patient transfer times. Handover times give staff the
opportunity to convey important information about patients and to ask
their colleagues to continue care during the next shift. What types of handovers are there?
You might expect to hear a handover from a colleague in the
following circumstances: at shift handover times to let you know what's
been happening with your patient during the previous shift and tell you anything
which needs to be done in the following shift, as patients are transferred to
another part of the hospital or to a different healthcare environment, e.g.
from hospital to care home. You would expect to hear a summary of the
patient's care and care needs. As patients return from a test you would
only expect to hear about the patient's recent visit and perhaps receive
instructions about care needs after the tests. Before a colleague takes a break
or leaves the ward, your colleague may ask you to keep an eye on their patient
or perhaps do something for the patient, e.g. take the patient's Obs.
What sort of information is handed over in a handover? During a real handover much of
the information can be quite technical and health care professionals often use
a lot of abbreviations. During the OET listening tasks you hear the type of
information you would expect to hear during a handover but you won't hear
complex terms or obscure abbreviations. The information you might hear in a
handover includes the following: changes in patient observations or Obs. A patient's Obs. are temperature, pulse, respirations,
blood pressure and oxygen sats. So, e.g. 'Her temperature has been quite high this
shift', 'His blood pressure went down to 80/50 this morning', 'Her sats. were down
to 89% so he gave her some oxygen which brought them back up to 99%'
Information about tests or investigations, e.g. blood tests, CT scans, x-rays.
'He had some blood taken to check his iron levels.'
'She had an x-ray this morning to see if her arm was broken.'
'He'll need a repeat CT scan next week after his treatment.' Details about new
treatments, e.g. for an infection or after a new diagnosis. ' She started
some antibiotics 3 times a day for her chest infection.' 'He's going to start
blood pressure-lowering medication for hypertension.' Information about
medication including IV medication and intravenous infusions.
'He's got IV Normal Saline running over 8 hours', 'She needs to take a daily iron
tablet until the end of her pregnancy.'
Changes in wound management including dressings and bandages. ' She's having
daily dressings to the pressure ulcer', 'He's got an occlusive dressing over the
wound on his lower left leg', 'She needs to have a compression bandage put on after
the ulcer dressing has been done.' Notification of adverse incidents, e.g. falls or medication errors. 'There was some water on the floor in her room
this morning and she had a fall which caused some bruising to her right arm', 'He
was given the wrong dose of his medication this afternoon.
He has been reviewed and no ill effects have been noticed.' Changes in a patient's
mental state, e.g. confusion or aggression. 'She became quite confused
this afternoon possibly as the result of a urinary tract infection.'
'He became very aggressive when I told him he couldn't leave the ward to have a
cigarette.' Events about to happen on the oncoming shift, e.g. tests or
procedures. 'She has to have an MRI this afternoon and needs to be ready by 3:00pm'
'He's first on the afternoon list for surgery and should be ready to be
collected by 2:00 p.m.'