Further information on communicating for safety
Communicating for safety involves the accurate and timely exchange of information about a person's care between health professionals, multidisciplinary teams, and patients and their support people.
When communication breaks down or information isn’t shared well, it compromises a person’s wishes, safety and treatment.
What is effective communication?
Effective communication is a structured and continuous process that requires two way, and where appropriate, multi way information exchange between health professionals. It needs to be tailored, open, honest, and respectful, with opportunities for clarification, questions, and feedback.
Effective communication can also include systems and processes, such as patient identification and documentation of a person’s medical history, which support the timely, accurate, and clear transfer of care between healthcare professionals.
Communication is integral to all aspects of care, needs to happen at every point of care for a person, and is a core clinical skill that can be developed and improved with practice, experience, continuous learning, mentorship, and support.
Why is effective communication important?
Good communication underpins safe, coordinated, and effective patient care. Clear, timely, and accurate communication among healthcare professionals reduces the risk of misunderstandings, omissions, and errors during critical processes such as handovers, medication administration, and clinical decision making.
When clinicians actively listen, confirm understanding, and share relevant information, they are better able to identify potential risks early and respond appropriately to changes in a patient’s condition. Effective communication with patients and their support people is equally important, as it promotes informed consent, encourages patients to speak up about concerns, and supports adherence to care plans. Overall, effective communication fosters teamwork, situational awareness, and a culture of safety, all of which are essential in minimising preventable harm and improving clinical outcomes.
Effective communication is important because it:
- Enhances patient safety by reducing misunderstandings, risks, and errors in care delivery.
- Supports person-centred care by enabling shared decision-making.
- Improves health outcomes through clearer instructions, better adherence to treatment plans, and increased patient satisfaction.
- Improves collaboration and teamwork among healthcare professionals.
How to communicate effectively with your team
Care delivery for an individual can be complex, often involving multiple healthcare professionals from different disciplines, services, and settings. Effective communication within the healthcare team is therefore essential to ensure safe, coordinated, and high‑quality care.
Because of this complexity, communication between health professionals varies depending on the setting, urgency, and context of care. Team members must be able to adapt their communication approach to meet the needs of each situation.
We have a scoping paper to support improving collaboration and teamwork in health services.
How to communicate effectively with patients
Effective communication with patients is essential to ensure safety, understanding, and quality care at every stage of the healthcare journey.
Considerations for effective communication with patients include:
- Use clear, simple language and avoid clinical jargon to ensure the patient can easily understand information.
- Actively listen to the patient, allowing them time to speak and express concerns without interruption.
- Show empathy, respect, and kindness, acknowledging the patient’s feelings, experiences, and perspectives.
- Apply a person-centred approach by adapting communication to individual needs, values and preferences.
- Involve patients in decision making, supporting informed consent.
- Involve family members, carers, or other support people in communication about the patient’s care where appropriate and with the patient’s consent.
- Ensure informed consent is obtained before any treatment, procedure, or healthcare intervention.
- Confirm understanding by encouraging questions and using strategies such as teach‑back or clarification.
- Maintain privacy and confidentiality during all conversations.
- Document important information accurately.
How to communicate effectively at transitions of care
A transition of care is when all or part of a person’s health care is transferred between care providers. This may involve transfer of responsibility for some aspects of a person’s health care, or all of their health care, on a temporary or permanent basis.
Transitions of care are high risk situations for patient safety and quality. As a patient’s health needs become more complex, there is often increased interaction with multiple parts of the healthcare system, resulting in more frequent transitions of care.
Our fact sheet provides guidance for improving communication with patients during transitions of care.
Our information sheet supports effective communication during transitions of care for executive staff and clinical leaders, and our summary of the Engaging patients in communication at transitions of care report provides advice on engaging with patients at transitions of care.
Our infographic maps the NSQHS Standards actions (second edition) to a patient journey across one health service organisation.
Visit our page on transitions of care for more information
Performing clinical handover
Clinical handover is the transfer of professional responsibility and accountability for some or all aspects of a patients care to another person or professional group on a temporary or permanent basis.
Considerations for effective clinical handover include:
- Structured and standardised communication, using recognised tools or frameworks to ensure information is organised, consistent, and complete. This supports the clear transfer of:
- the patient’s clinical history and current condition,
- risks and safety concerns,
- care goals, preferences, and priorities.
- Clear transfer of responsibility and accountability, ensuring it is explicit who is handing over care and who is assuming responsibility.
- Accurate, relevant, and timely information, focusing on what the receiving clinician needs to know to safely continue care.
- Comprehensive and accurate documentation, with essential handover information recorded appropriately.
Our toolkit includes a range of resources to assist with clinical handovers in all health care settings.
How to effectively document information
Accurate and effective documentation of health information is essential for safe clinical decision‑making and the ongoing care of a patient. High‑quality documentation ensures that all members of the healthcare team have access to the information they need to provide coordinated, continuous, and person‑centred care.
Considerations for effective documentation of information include:
- Complete, accurate, and legible information, recorded in a timely manner to reflect the patient’s current condition and care.
- Relevant information about the patient including diagnosis, risks, assessments, and the patient’s personal goals, preferences, and care priorities.
- Clear and objective language, that can be easily interpreted by health professionals and patients.
- Compliance with privacy and confidentiality policies, ensuring patient information is protected and shared appropriately.
- Accessibility of information, so documentation can be easily located, read, and understood by all relevant healthcare professionals.
Our rapid review details elements to improve documentation at transitions of care for complex patients.
Guiding principles for documentation
Guiding principle | What does this look like? |
|---|---|
| Person-centred |
|
| Compliant |
|
| Complete and accurate |
|
| Integrated and up to date |
|
| Accessible |
|
| Readable |
|
| Enduring |
|