Abstract for presentation at Australian and New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses 32nd Annual International Conference

Nursing clinical handover is a verbal interchange of information occurring between shifts to inform oncoming nursing staff of the condition of patients. The process is readily accepted as being an essential aspect of nursing practice in terms of enhancing continuity and quality of patient care. The generalist nursing literature is replete with information about this important activity across a range of practice settings however, there is a great paucity of information about handover processes specific to mental health nursing contexts.
Staff from a major public mental health facility in NSW recognised that nursing handover processes across the inpatient rehabilitation setting were not clearly articulated or situated within a framework of research evidence. An exploratory study was conducted across 8 units to establish what should constitute the format and content of verbal handovers for mental health rehabilitation. Audiotaping of handovers and interviews with nursing staff were used to establish current practice and staff perceptions.
The study revealed: the structure of handover was inconsistent between units; that handover content was highly generalised and primarily retrospective; and nurse-led interventions were poorly articulated. In addition nurses readily agreed that handover was highly important to their practice and on what information was essential to handover content. Significantly, nurses also identified a lack of training or information on how to prepare and deliver effective handovers and acknowledged the need for formalised nursing handover guidelines as being a priority.
This paper presents the study findings and illustrates how nurses used the findings to develop a Protocol for inpatient mental health rehabilitation nursing handovers so they might better communicate patient information and establish professional and effective nursing clinical handovers.