‘Hands-off’ during handover!

This study, which is abefore and after interventionstudy (described as a ‘video-refexive ethnography’), examines ambulance staff toemergency department (ED)handover in two centres inNew South Wales in Australia.

In the frst stage of thestudy, participants wereinvolved in one of ten focusgroups where membersof the Centre for HealthCommunication (CHC)worked with participantsto explore the complexitiesand challenges encounteredduring patient handover.

The next stage involvedobservation of handoverswhich included video-recording 73 handovers (33 atone hospital; 40 at the other).This data was analysed lookingfor emerging similarities and/or differences focusing onboth verbal and non-verbalcommunication patterns;duration of handover etc.

In the pre-interventionobservations in 93 % (68)of cases the ED staff askedquestions during thehandover, with 38 % (26)asking questions about issuesthat had already been coveredby the paramedic. In 67 %(49) of cases the paramedicrepeated information duringhandover. Handover timevaried according to factorssuch as severity of patients’condition (higher categorytriage appeared to have longer handover times thannon-urgent patients), orseniority of the paramedic(more senior grades tooklonger). The amount of eyecontact appeared to infuencehandover time, with less eyecontact culminating in longerhandover times.