{"id":298,"date":"2015-06-08T09:24:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T09:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/quality\/?p=298"},"modified":"2015-06-08T09:24:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T09:24:43","slug":"handover-the-giving-of-control-or-responsibility-for-something-to-someone-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/quality\/2015\/06\/08\/handover-the-giving-of-control-or-responsibility-for-something-to-someone-else\/","title":{"rendered":"Handover: the giving of control or responsibility for something to someone else"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"emgos1\"

Emma is completing her second year of core surgical training (otolaryngology) in the North West deanery. She is actively involved in a variety of quality improvement projects across the Deanery and has a keen interest in clinical management and leadership.<\/p><\/div>\n

With increasing shift work, clinical handover can sometimes merely mean the passing over of a bleep rather than the sharing of responsibility. Effective handover is important for patient care as well as benefiting the multi-disciplinary team environment. Despite the clearly recognised importance and impact on continuity of care, it is rarely given appropriate airtime on teaching programmes and ultimately not assessed as a core competence of a clinical practitioner, which could lead to bad habits and loss of emphasis on the process.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an attempt to counter this, many professional bodies have produced guidelines on written handover documentation \u2013 however, such guidelines are often seen to be both time and financially heavy to implement. As a surgical trainee wanting the best for my patients, I spent some time understanding what messages and simple measures can be taken from these guidelines and implemented without the need for large investments in time or money.<\/p>\n

This got me wondering, what does handover really mean and what does a good handover look like?<\/em><\/p>\n

I worked with my colleagues to trial some ideas within my current trust, which serves a population of nearly 900,000 people across four hospital sites. My departmental team consists of six junior doctors providing 24\/7 care, resulting in frequent shift changes with challenging handovers.<\/p>\n

My ideas were based on guidance from the General Medical Council\u2019s (GMC) Good Medical Practice<\/em>, (which has a section, Domain 3<\/em>, dedicated to communication: \u201cPartnership and Teamwork\u201d), advice from the Medical Defence Union[i]<\/a>, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England\u2019s Good Surgical Practice<\/em>[ii]<\/a>. The main focus of the guidance is on communication and documentation.<\/p>\n

Domain 3<\/em> has a subsection titled, \u201ccontinuity and co-ordination of care\u201d, highlighting that we must contribute to the safe transfer of patients between healthcare and health and social care providers, further specifying the following:<\/p>\n