Nursing Handover

Background and Significance The purpose of this of this experimental study “Investigate transfer of information at nursing handover” (Boyd, Cumin, Devcich, & Lee, 2015, p. 161) is clear and concise. The dependent variable of this study is the nurse’s confidence in the truth of information and independent variables is the way the information is presented. The sample population is clearly defined, and the result “ adds to the literature because it is one of very few studies done using an experimental design to investigate nursing handover” (Boyd et al., 2015, p. 165).
Research question and hypothesis The research question clearly identified, “Can participant nurses’ confidence in the truth of information be influenced by the way the information
As a result, the nursing end of shift report to incoming nurses is susceptible to errors. With no policies and guidelines addressing handover in the healthcare system, nurses develop their own ways of delivering report at handover and this practice has not been proven to be effective. “There is information loss at every point in the continuum of care and discrepancies between handover content and patient’s actual conditions” (Boyd et al., 2015, p. 161). According to Brierly, psychology literature suggests that affective aspects of communication can enhance retention of information (Boyd et al., 2015, p. 161). However, there is no research study that shows how affective aspects affect delivery of nursing report. In most hospitals, nurses use both verbal and written report at handover. Based on observational study, verbal and written approach has been supported to increased efficacy of handover. However, the study does not evaluate the recollection of information and the availability of experimental study on the different elements does not exist.
Nurses were recruited from two different units (PACU and surgical ward) at three metropolitan hospitals. The participants were appropriate for the study as it was identified in the research question. Sample was appropriately calculated, “with an α value of 0.05 and a β value of 0.2, we estimated we would need 24 in each group to demonstrate the effect using ANOVA” (Boyd et al., 2015, p. 162). There were approximately equal numbers of participants for each of the four experimental conditions: control, affective qualifier, written summary and combined (Boyd et al., 2015, p. 164). Simple randomization was utilized to place the participants in one of the four groups. Participants were not aware of the distribution process, hypothesis, and differing videos. Although it is a convenience sample, the study applies to nurses and nursing students and the findings can be generalized within the nursing