Patient safety culture and handoff evaluation of nurses in small and medium-sized hospitals

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to investigate the current status of handoffs, perception of patient safety culture, and degrees of handoff evaluation in small and medium-sized hospitals and identified factors that make a difference in handoff evaluation. METHODS: This is a descriptive study. 425 nurses who work at small and medium-sized hospitals in South Korea were included in our study. They completed a set of self-reporting questionnaires that evaluated demographic data, handoff-related characteristics, perception of patient safety culture, and handoff evaluation. RESULTS: Results showed that the overall score of awareness of a patient safety culture was 3.65 ± 0.45, the level was moderate. The score of handoff evaluation was 5.24 ± 0.85. Most nurses experienced errors in handoff and most nurses had no guidelines and checklist in the ward. Handoff evaluation differed significantly according to the level of education, work patterns, duration of hospital employment, handoff method, degree of satisfaction with the current handoff method, errors occurring at the time of handoff, handoff guidelines, and appropriateness of handoff education time (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: For handoff improvement, guidelines and standards should be established. It is necessary to develop a structured handoff education system. And formal handoff education should be implemented to spread knowledge uniformly.