Improving the quality of handover: implementing SBAR

Abstract

Effective communication is essential in the provision of safe patient care. Use of structured communication tools, such as the Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation (SBAR) format of handover have been shown to improve patient safety, especially for telephonic handovers.1 SBAR has widely been recommended as a standardised method of handover.2,3 We undertook a quality improvement (QI) project to increase SBAR awareness across two wards in a district general hospital. This study describes the effect of our interventions and the challenges of implementing QI methodology to measuring safe communication and handover.