Effective communication in clinical handover
Effective communication in clinical handover

About the project

This project focused on clinician-to-clinician communication in clinical handover in five hospitals across Australia. In collaboration with partner organisations and clinicians, the team translated comprehensive descriptive frameworks into innovative evidence-based interventions and policy recommendations.

The policy recommendations and handover model we developed for effective clinical handover communication have informed the new standard on Communicating for Patient Safety, developed by the Australian Commission for the Safety and Quality in Healthcare.

During this project we developed and delivered training to 340 nurses across the Canberra Hospital. The post-training evaluations demonstrated significant changes in practice. The success of this intervention resulted in further funding for other projects in Australia and Hong Kong.

This was a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage grant with funding from the ARC and the Linkage partners.

Project team

  • Diana Slade (Lead CI)
  • Lesley Farrell
  • Elizabeth Trickett
  • John Walsh
  • Jon Juriedini
  • Malcolm Battersby
  • Christy Pirone
  • Dorothy Jones
  • Phillip Della
  • Ted Stewart-Wynne
  • James Dunne
  • Elizabeth Manias
  • Bernadette Watson
  • Jacqui Bear

Publications

  • Eggins, S, Slade, D and Geddes, F (eds) (2016). Effective Communication in Clinical Handover – from Research to Practice. De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin; (PASA, Patient Safety 16).
  • Pun, J, Chan, EA, Man, M, Eggins, S, Slade, D (2019). Pre- and post-evaluations of the effects of the Connect, Ask, Respond and Empathise (CARE) protocol on nursing handover: A case study of a bilingual hospital in Hong Kong. Journal of Clinical Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.1487
  • Slade D, Murray KA, Pun JKH, Eggins S (2018). Nurses’ perceptions of mandatory bedside clinical handovers: An Australian hospital study. Journal of Nursing Management. 00:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12661
  • Slade, D, Pun, J, Murray, KA, & Eggins, S (2018). Benefits of health care communication training for nurses conducting bedside handovers: An Australian hospital case study. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 49(7), 329-336. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20180613-09
  • Eggins, S and Slade, D (2016). Contrasting Verbal Styles and Barriers to Patient Participation in Bedside Nursing Handovers. Communication and Medicine, 13.1 (special volume on Team Talk).
  • Pun, JKH, Matthiessen, C, Murray, K, Slade, D (2015). Factors affecting communication in emergency departments: doctors and nurses perceptions of communication in a trilingual ED in Hong Kong.  International Journal of Emergency Medicine. 8:48 DOI 10.1186/s12245-015-0095-y http://www.intjem.com/content/8/1/48
  • Eggins, S and Slade, D (2015). Communication in clinical handover: improving the safety and quality of the patient experience. Journal of Public Health Research, Vol 4.666.
  • Rider, EA, Kurtz, S, Slade, D, Esterbrook Longmaid III, HE, Ming-Jung, Ho, Pun Kwok Hung, J, Eggins S, Branch, WT (2014). The International Charter for Human Values in Healthcare: An interprofessional global collaboration to enhance values and communication in healthcare.Patient Education and Counselling. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.pec.2014.06.017
  • Eggins, S & Slade, D (2012). Clinical handover as an interactive event: informational and interactional communication strategies in effective shift-change handovers.Communication and Medicine Volume. 9(3), pp. 215–227.

Project contact

Professor Diana Slade
diana.slade@anu.edu.au