Abstract:
Background: Handover failures are common in healthcare settings and lead to different
adverse patient outcomes and complications. The complexity of perioperative environment
and the condition in which surgical patients are handed over to postanesthesia care (PACU)
nurses make surgical patients the most vulnerable to handover failures and associated
complications.
Problem statement: Lack of standardized process, irrelevance or absence of core team
members, noise, distractions and interruptions threaten the quality of handovers.
The aim of this study was to explore the process of patient care handover between the OR
team and PACU nurses, staff compliance with tasks and information transfer to the PACU
nurse at CHUB.
Methods: A prospective observational study using cross-sectional design was conducted on
patients and staff involved in admission to the PACU of the University Teaching Hospital of
Butare (CHUB), south Rwanda. A sample of 109 admissions was calculated using Yamane‟s
formula and a checklist adopted from the one developed validated and utilized in two
hospitals of London. A single researcher observed handover and completed the checklist
accordingly. Data was analyzed through SPSS version 21 Statistics and presented in tables
and charts showing percentages.
Results: Only 89% patients were handed over, the team handing over was complete in only
0.9%, and tasks execution and attentiveness of the staff complied 15.6% with the protocol.
Most of the essential information items were conveyed in less than 60% however all pieces
of surgical related information was conveyed less than 10%.
Conclusion: Postoperative Patients handovers practice in CHUB was noted to have gaps that
pose risks. There is no standardized process, the staff rely on memory and information
transfer was characterized by heterogeneity and incompleteness, whereby
Recommendations: Standardization of the process, use of postoperative handover checklist,
staff trainings researches on postoperative patient handover are essential to improve quality
and safety of postoperative patient care at CHUB.
