Background: Handoff is a vital step in nursing care, particularly in critical care units, because it involves the
transfer of clear and simple patient clinical information that leads to enhanced continuity of patient care. Aim of
the study: Assess effectiveness of educational program on nurses' knowledge and performance regarding shift
change handoff and its effect on continuity of patient care. Design: A quasi experimental research design was used
to carry out this study. Setting: The research was carried out in Intensive Care Units at Benha Teaching Hospital.
Subjects: All available 48 nurses. Tools for data collection: Three tools were used for data collection namely;
Handoff Knowledge Questionnaire, Handoff Observational Checklist, Continuity of Care Observational Checklist.
The results showed that, there was highly statistically significant improvement in nurses` knowledge and
performance regarding handoff at post, follow up program than preprogram. Also there was highly statistically
significant improvement in level of continuity of care post program, follow up as majority of nurses has
satisfactory level of continuity of care (83.3%, 85.4%) compared to preprogram (25.0%). Conclusion:
Implementing the educational program had a significant effect in improving nurses' knowledge and performance of
handoff, as well as total continuity of care during the post-program phase. There was a highly statistically
significant positive correlation between total knowledge, total performance regarding handoff, and total continuity
of care among nurses post-program scores. |
