The use of resources during shift hand-offs in a pediatric intensive care unit

Abstract

The nursing handoff is a fundamental aspect of continued patient care that involves the transfer of vital medical information through various means. This project qualitatively examined nursing dyads to determine the types of resources used during handoffs and their frequency through the theoretical framework of distributed cognition. Forty handoffs between nurses, with experience ranging from 3 to 40 or more years, were observed within the intensive care unit of a pediatric hospital. The findings revealed that a variety of resources were referred to and appear mildly correlated with handoff durations, where more experienced individuals displayed a greater frequency of resource use in prolonged handoffs. Copyright 2010 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Inc. All rights reserved