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27 May 2009 Perth
30 March 2009 in Brisbane
24 November 2008 Adelaide

These workshops provided an opportunity to learn and share information about some of the new tools being developed by clinical handover pilot projects from around Australia. These solutions are being developed for use across healthcare settings by teams participating in the National Clinical Handover Initiative.

Ms Leena Sudano, South Australia’s Health & Community Services Complaints Commissioner, gave the plenary session (PDF 216 KB) at the Adelaide workshop.


TeamSTEPPS™: Teamwork and Communication Training Programme (PDF 4104 KB)
South Australian Department of Health Clinical Systems
Presenters: Karen Stead, Christy Perone, Robert Adams, Conrad Wareham

TeamSTEPPS is based on the teamwork principles of leadership, situation monitoring, mutual support and communication. It contains the tools that support the practical application of these principles. This workshop provided an overview of TeamSTEPPS and demonstrated a selection of the tools from the TeamSTEPPS programme.


Exnovation: Enabling frontline staff to devise suitable solutions to handover challenges (PDF 4042 KB)
University of Technology, Sydney
Presenters: Rick Iedema, Eamon Merrick, Robert Herkes (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, ICU)

This workshop presented the tools and resources needed to enable frontline staff to devise solutions to handover challenges they face in their own local environments. The workshop also involved studying examples of wards and departments where staff have deployed these tools and resources, and what they have been able to achieve with them.


Ossie, Ossie, Ossie, Oi, Oi, Oi Please "hand me an isobar" to improve clinical handover (PDF 1704 KB)
Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services
Presenters: Kwang Chien Yee, Ming Chao Wong, Paul Turner

Using research on medical & nursing shift-to-shift handover this workshop showed how to be ‘flexible' and 'adaptable' in the implementation of evidence-based standardised operating protocols and minimum data sets across different disciplines, departments and professional boundaries. The workshop aimed to assist healthcare managers & clinical staff to enhance their skills for the design, initiation, implementation, evaluation and sustainability of clinical handover improvement initiatives.


iSoBAR - keeping the pressure up - making handover sticky (PDF 2959 KB)
West Australian Country Health Service and Royal Perth Hospital
Presenters: Jill Porteous, Ted Stewart-Wynne, Pauline Crommelin

This workshop described the background to the project and the approach taken to engage staff in developing tools. In this workshop, strategies to adopt and take ownership of a robust process to clinical handover were also discussed. Specifically participants had the opportunity to work through how the project team built commitment and a shared understanding of the problems to be addressed. The key enabling strategies and consideration of how the tools and mnemonic were developed and helped created ownership were also discussed.


Implementing Bedside Nursing Handover (PDF 221 KB)
Griffith University, Research Centre for Clinical and Community Practice Innovation
Presenters: Wendy Chaboyer, Anne McMurray (Murdoch University)
Based on the team’s bedside nursing handover research, a brief overview of the structures, processes and outcomes of bedside handover was presented. This was followed by a discussion of a standard operating protocol for bedside nursing handover. The change process, which underpins successful adoption of bedside nursing handover, was explored. Participants worked in groups to explore what bedside nursing handover would entail in their organisation.


Pushing the Envelope: Clinical Handover between Aged Care Homes and Hospitals (PDF 140 KB)
North East Valley Division of General Practice
Presenters: Mary Belfrage, Diana Cooper

This workshop described the use and usefulness of the Transfer-to-Hospital Yellow Envelope – a tool developed to support clinical handover in the often-overlooked scenario when a resident of an Aged Care Home is transferred to hospital. This workshop described:

• how this particular high-risk clinical handover scenario was identified;


• what the particular challenges are of clinical handover between these settings;


• the highly collaborative process of developing the Envelope;


• features of the Envelope including the checklist printed on the actual envelope, the most popular feature, and other handover information that should be included for safe handover; and


• why Aged Care Home staff like it and use it!

Making an im –“PACT” an education program for clinical handover (PDF 1231 KB)
Albury Wodonga Private Hospital
Presenters: MaryEllen Mickle, Sally Squire, Eileen Clark, Anne Heyme and Eileen Petrie

Effective communication in healthcare requires knowledge, skill and empathy. Despite being used everyday in the clinical setting, communication skills need to be learned, practiced and refined so that healthcare professionals can communicate in a clear, concise and appropriate way in our often fast paced and stressful environment. The PACT workshop will share our practical communication tools and education program that assist nursing staff to standardise shift-to-shift and nurse-to-doctor handovers based on the SBAR principles.


Identifying and Solving BARriers to effective handover in interhospital transfer
Hunter New England Area Health Service
Presenters: Kim Hill, Rosemary Aldrich, Anne Duggan and Kim Lane

This workshop will examine the use of the ISBAR for standardising information on patients transferred between hospitals. The workshop demonstrates how tools can be used to enhance clinical handover in interhospital transfer that have a high degree of acceptability among health practitioners; are easy to implement and sustain across the rural-metropolitan interface; and are an effective patient safety solution easily translatable to other healthcare settings.


Tools to evaluate the quality of interprofessional clinical handover in complex settings (PDF 2606 KB)
Deakin University
Presenters: Bernice Redley, Mari Botti, Louise Alexander, Agnetha Clarke and Andrew McNess

This workshop will introduce the audience to different methods for evaluating the quality of clinical handover in practice. Participants will learn to: distinguish advantages and disadvantages of different methods for evaluating the quality of clinical handover; develop a multi-method strategy for evaluating handover practice specific to their clinical environment; and use principles to apply the methods for evaluating handover in their local context.


What’s missing? Audit tools to linking patient information to patient care (PDF 662 KB)
GPPartners
Presenters: Helen Hoare, Dr Kylie Norris, Karen Kasper & Lisa Mitchell

Performing an audit provides the facts that confirm realities, dispel myths and enable informed recommendations for improvement. In this workshop you will learn how using audit tools enables a more substantial review of what is actually happening with information sharing between Residential Aged Care Facilities and major metropolitan hospitals. They help to identify where systems fall down and how this affects the decision making process and management of people who require acute intervention.


SHARED communication between obstetricians and midwives - a framework for clinical handover (PDF 431 KB)
Mater Health Services Brisbane Ltd
Presenters: Sara Hatten-Masterson and Marnie Griffiths

S-situation H-history A-assessment R-risks E-expectation D-documentation
Childbirth is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates and litigation costs for maternity contribute to 50% of all claims. Communication failure is one of the highest contributing factors to adverse events in maternity care.
Despite this, there is presently no formalised or structured process for verbalising or documenting handover of care between obstetricians and midwives, across clinical areas or across time. This session will describe how to adapt and implement the SHARED framework at your facility.


Bedside Nursing (PDF 185 KB) and Medical Handover (PDF 1488 KB)
Griffith University, Research Centre for Clinical and Community Practice Innovation, Ipswich Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Presenters: Wendy Chaboyer, Joanne Johnson and Clare Richmond

This workshop focuses on two strategies to improve clinical handovers undertaken by nurses and doctors. First, this workshop will briefly review the research findings that provide the foundation for the standard operating protocol
developed to improve bedside nursing handover. Practical issues and challenges faced when implementing and sustaining bedside handover will be discussed. Second, participants will learn how a whiteboard handover combined with bedside "cowboy" round can be used to enhance the handover process for medical staff in the emergency department. Participants will learn how the staff in ED at RPA use this tool to improve communication and patient safety.


Effective Handover of Private Mental Health Patients to Community Health Practitioners (PDF 1868 KB)
St John of God Health Services (NSW)
Presenters: Susan Wood and Noella Sheerin

In 2003 mental health disorders comprised 13.3% of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia, with private hospitals providing almost a quarter of all mental health beds and treating nearly 100,000 patients in 2002-03. Mental health illness provides challenges in communicating and coordinating care across health providers and settings. Issues relating to stigma and enhanced concerns for confidentiality further complicate communications particularly at the facility-community nexus. In this workshop you will learn how to use the PDSA model to provide effective and efficient clinical handover for private mental health patients to community health practitioners.

‘Leading Clinical Handover’ an online education program for clinical leaders
The University of Queensland
Presenters: Lynn Robinson and Nina Bianco

This workshop will demonstrate a newly developed online educational program titled ‘Leading Clinical Handover’. The program enables clinical leaders to objectively critique, design and continuously improve clinical handover processes within their area of responsibility, using evidence based principles, to support high standards of clinical care and patient safety. This education provides clinical leaders with the evidence based concepts that underpin effective clinical handover. It prepares and empowers clinical leaders to critique existing and candidate clinical handover processes within their area of responsibility, and to positively influence clinical handover culture in the healthcare workforce.

Updated: 16 June, 2009

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