title: Developing a guide to improve the quality of nurses' handover.
abstract: This article considers the importance of handover as a means of communicating important patient information from one nursing shift to the next. It describes the development of a guide, based on Essence of Care benchmarks, intended to improve the quality of nursing handover. A post implementation audit suggests that once staff were familiar with the guide, handovers became more structured and informative.
authors.affiliation: South Birmingham Primary Care Trust.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fenton
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D019985:Benchmarking; D003142:Communication; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000592:standards*; D004282:Documentation / Q000592:standards; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009731:Nursing Audit; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009737:Nursing Records / Q000592:standards; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology; D010347:Patient Care Planning / Q000592:standards; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012047:Rehabilitation Centers; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration