The handover: uncovering the hidden practices of nurses

Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2000 Dec;16(6):373-83. doi: 10.1054/iccn.2000.1523.

Abstract

This paper considers the ways in which the nursing handover involves a complex network of communication that impacts on nursing interactions. The critical ethnographic study upon which this paper is based involved a research group of six nurses who worked in one critical care unit. Data-collection methods involved professional journalling, participant observation, and individual and focus group interviews. The nursing handover took on many forms and served different purposes. At the start of a shift, the nurse coordinator of the previous shift presented a 'global' handover of all patients to oncoming nurses. Nurses proceeded then to the bedside handover, where the intention changed from one that involved a broad overview of patients, to one that concentrated on a patient's individual needs. Data analysis identified five practices for consideration: the global handover serving the needs of nurse coordinators; the examination; the tyranny of tidiness; the tyranny of busyness; and the need to create a sense of finality. In challenging nurses' understanding of these practices, they can become more sensitive to other nurses' needs, thus promoting the handover process as a site for collaborative and supportive communication.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anthropology, Cultural
  • Attitude of Health Personnel*
  • Authoritarianism
  • Communication*
  • Continuity of Patient Care / organization & administration*
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Critical Care / organization & administration*
  • Focus Groups
  • Humans
  • Interprofessional Relations*
  • Nurse Administrators / organization & administration
  • Nurse Administrators / psychology
  • Nursing Methodology Research
  • Nursing Staff, Hospital / organization & administration*
  • Nursing Staff, Hospital / psychology*
  • Nursing, Supervisory / organization & administration
  • Patient Care Planning / organization & administration*
  • Social Support
  • Surveys and Questionnaires