Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital

This study assesses the ergonomic quality of a new writing format used for the written transmission of activity during a nurse’s handover in a hospital. This format called “targeted or focussed transmission” comes from a new prescription of hospital management designed to improve the written handove...

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Main Authors: Jean-Michel Boucheix, Michèle Coiron
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Recherche et Pratique sur les Activités 2008-04-01
Series:Activités
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/activites/1963
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author Jean-Michel Boucheix
Michèle Coiron
author_facet Jean-Michel Boucheix
Michèle Coiron
author_sort Jean-Michel Boucheix
collection DOAJ
description This study assesses the ergonomic quality of a new writing format used for the written transmission of activity during a nurse’s handover in a hospital. This format called “targeted or focussed transmission” comes from a new prescription of hospital management designed to improve the written handover process. Our research focused on the information filtering process for each patient concerned by a shift handover. A three step methodology was designed, with the participation of 9 nurses in charge of 70 patients : (1) nursing work analysis before the handover, (2) oral handover analysis, (3) written handover analysis. Results show that the new writing format does not match the nurses’ needs to perform high quality handovers. The main clues, clinical signs and patient behaviour, used by nurses during an oral handover, to supervise the monitoring of the patient state disappear from the content of the written handover document. Regulation activities carried out to manage areas of dysfunction within the patient’s state, which are a main topic in the oral handover, are not included in the written handover document. The different roles played by oral dialogue and written traces in the patient monitoring activity have been analysed and discussed. Finally, a cognitive model of professional written production is proposed and discussed and also some recommendations to design writing tools for the optimization of written handover documents.
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spelling doaj.art-2e77f4a8f80a412c8b27063827a4fc722022-12-21T20:16:01ZengAssociation Recherche et Pratique sur les ActivitésActivités1765-27232008-04-015110.4000/activites.1963Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospitalJean-Michel BoucheixMichèle CoironThis study assesses the ergonomic quality of a new writing format used for the written transmission of activity during a nurse’s handover in a hospital. This format called “targeted or focussed transmission” comes from a new prescription of hospital management designed to improve the written handover process. Our research focused on the information filtering process for each patient concerned by a shift handover. A three step methodology was designed, with the participation of 9 nurses in charge of 70 patients : (1) nursing work analysis before the handover, (2) oral handover analysis, (3) written handover analysis. Results show that the new writing format does not match the nurses’ needs to perform high quality handovers. The main clues, clinical signs and patient behaviour, used by nurses during an oral handover, to supervise the monitoring of the patient state disappear from the content of the written handover document. Regulation activities carried out to manage areas of dysfunction within the patient’s state, which are a main topic in the oral handover, are not included in the written handover document. The different roles played by oral dialogue and written traces in the patient monitoring activity have been analysed and discussed. Finally, a cognitive model of professional written production is proposed and discussed and also some recommendations to design writing tools for the optimization of written handover documents.http://journals.openedition.org/activites/1963working reliefwritten transmissionswritten production model
spellingShingle Jean-Michel Boucheix
Michèle Coiron
Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital
Activités
working relief
written transmissions
written production model
title Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital
title_full Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital
title_fullStr Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital
title_short Analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital
title_sort analysis of the written handover process during shift changes within the hospital
topic working relief
written transmissions
written production model
url http://journals.openedition.org/activites/1963
work_keys_str_mv AT jeanmichelboucheix analysisofthewrittenhandoverprocessduringshiftchangeswithinthehospital
AT michelecoiron analysisofthewrittenhandoverprocessduringshiftchangeswithinthehospital