Article 2 A STANDARDIZED PATIENT HANDOVER PROCESS: PERCEPTIONS AND FUNCTIONING

In this paper, we describe the perceptions and functioning of a standardized patient handover protocol to improve communication between ambulance personnel and emergency department (ED) nurses in the transition between pre-hospital and in-hospital care. Patient handovers are identified as a vulnerable step in safe patient care due to the fact that vital patient information may get lost or misinterpreted. An exploratory research design with multistage focus group interviews was chosen to study a standardized handover protocol across two different disciplines two years after the implementation of the protocol. Study results reveal that even though both ambulance personnel and ED nurses are more content with the information flow and the dialogue than prior to the protocol, there are still challenges related to communication and information exchange, to the system surrounding the handover process, to attitudes towards the usefulness of formalized protocols, and to the knowledge of the handover protocol in itself.