Table of Contents
Introductions
- Initiate introductions
Break ice
- e.g. ‘How was your night?’
Patients
- How many to handover?
- Handover each patient separately using SBAR:
Situation (core details)
- Patient details (name, DOB, hospital number)
- Patient location
- Major problem at the moment
Background (admission and history)
- Admission details (if inpatient): date, admission reason, treatments
- Past medical history
- ± any other relevant aspects of the history
Assessment
- Observations
- Examination findings
- Investigations received/pending
- Management so far
Recommendations
- Diagnosis/differentials
- Management plan and outstanding jobs
Summarise
- Summarise each patient’s details back to your colleague
Closing
- Thank the doctor handing over
Tips for receiving a handover
- Try to get all the important details you normally would get from a patient if you had seen them yourself (including exploring symptoms, risk factors and relevant system reviews). Your colleague won’t necessarily remember to hand over all the information without you asking.
- Don’t just accept their diagnosis
- Ask if expected management has been done