Factors Affecting Quality of Nursing Handover among Staff Nurses and Its Relation to Patients’ Safety in Intensive Care Units

Abstract

Background: Intensive Care Unit ﴾ICU﴿ staff nurses role includes maintaining the continuity of patients care around the clock. High-quality nursing handover helps them to accomplish their role efficiently. Aim: This study aimed to assess factors affecting quality of nursing handover among staff nurses and its relation to patients' safety in ICUs. Subjects and Method: Design: A descriptive correlational study design was used to achieve the aim of the present study. Setting: The study was conducted at Tanta International Teaching Hospital (ICUs). Subjects: 255 staff nurses were involved in the study. Tools: Two tools were used to collect the data. Tool I: Factors Affecting Quality of Nursing Handover in ICUs Questionnaire. Tool II: Patients' Safety Issues in ICUs Questionnaire. Results: ICU staff nurses' highest mean percent of factors affecting nursing handover process quality were regarding relations with outgoing nurse 86.66, last handover experience 80.64 and unit safety climate 71.18. According to total ICU staff nurses' perceptions about patients' safety, 51.8% perceived a fair level in their work environment. 53.8% of staff nurses perceived a good level of patients' safety issues in their supervisors' expectations and actions promoting safety. Conclusion: There was a positive correlation between total factors affecting quality of nursing handover process and patients' safety issues in ICUs. Recommendations: Hospital management need to conduct continuous updating of handover policies and strategies to ensure its efficiency to keep patients' safety. Also, ICU staff nurses require allocating enough time every shift for the handover process. Intensive care is a multidisciplinary and inter-professional specialty dedicated to the overall management of patients' needs or acute and life-threatening organ dysfunction. While the underlying disease is being treated and resolved, the primary goal of intensive care is to prevent additional physiologic deterioration .(1) Nursing care is provided around the clock in intensive care by nurses having special qualifications and specialized training. The nurse to patient ratio is higher than in other areas of the hospital. (2) ICU staff nurses role includes protection, promotion and optimization of health and abilities .(3) There is a significant nursing shortage in ICUs which has led to concerns about the adverse impact of this shortage on the quality of patients' care .(4) Maintaining the continuity of care between working shifts is one of the most important aspects of patient care in ICUs. (5) Effective nurse handover can reduce the amount of time spent searching for information. (6) Nursing handover is considered to be a communication pattern used in the daily nursing procedures, to fulfill the goals of healthcare organization, continuity, consistency and patients' safety. (7) Factors affecting quality of nursing handover in ICUs consist of five dimensions , last handover experience, work environment, relationship with the outgoing nurse, staff nurses' feelings about work in general and unit safety climate .(8) Last nursing handover experience characteristics are key factors for the reinforcement of a wider understanding