An Exploration about Current Nursing Handover Practice in Korean Hospitals

국내 병원에서 이루어지고 있는 인수인계 현황에 대한 조사연구

Purpose: Examining current status of nursing intershift handover practice would provide opportunity to identify areas in need of improvement. The aim of this study was to describe nursing intershift handover practice in Korean hospitals. Methods: A cross-sectional survey using questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 788 nurses working in general hospitals had participated. Results: More than half of the nurses participated responded that they used kardex for verbal handover (51.8%). The average time took for handover was 40.2 minutes (SD=14.7). Only 5.8% of nurses were satisfied with intershift handover practice. 72.9% of respondents did not have manuals for handover and 86% of nurses considered intershift handover manuals were necessary. Most nurses considered intershift handover pratice as an important component for patient safety (99.2%). The causes of handover error were interruption during handover, high work load, and stress/fatigue of nurses. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated a need to develop handover practice guidelines which outline pertinent details. Intershift handover practice guidelines could provide consistency and structure to the information that is handed over.