The Study of Bedside Handover

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DOI: 10.21522/TIJNR.2015.02.01.Art022

Authors : Toini De Almeida

Abstract:

Namibia as a country is not an exception to adverse events due to inadequately managed beside handover. The country has similar contributing factors which may cripple the inefficiency of patient handover, for instance high patient turnover in wards, lack of specific handover guidelines in public hospital settings. Bedside handover are overlooked in its importance as in the case of Namibia where it can be regarded as the possible cause of death (that is still under investigation). From this study support this phenomenon as 60% of the respondents indicated that they are neutral on such a high-risk matter where they were supposed to be highly alerted. Currently, bedside handover in public hospitals is a day-to-day communication event by the health professionals. However, in Namibia information conveyed is not structured and the patient participation is not stressed. There is a constant outcry of the implications of inadequate bedside handover in the public health facilities. A recent example which ended up in litigation is where a registered nurse was involved with a high risk pregnant woman who was admitted to a public hospital for an elective caesarean section for the following day, but since it was a public holiday (May 1), the operation was not performed. Subsequently the patient died (New Era, 29 April 2014). This case is possibly a result of miscommunication during the handover process and shows a lack of accountability. 

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