Effectiveness of Protocol on Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) Technique of Communication among Nurses During Patients’ Handoff in a Tertiary Care Hospital

To find the effectiveness of Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) protocol in terms of difference in knowledge and practice among control and experimental group.

An evaluative approach was used. The study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital and consisted of 72 staff nurses and 72 handoff events by same staff nurses with 36 in both experimental and control group.

The data was collected through demographic proforma, structured knowledge questionnaire and practice checklist on SBAR technique during patients’ handoff. The data was analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The mean post test knowledge scores of the experimental group increased from 3.47 (SD= 1.63) to 7.72 (SD= 1.649) which was higher than the mean post test knowledge scores 3.81 (SD=1.283) of control group. The mean post-test practice scores of the experimental group increased from 2.64 (SD= 0.723) to 4.47 (SD= 0.81) which was apparently higher than the mean post test practice scores 3.23 (SD=0.808) of control group. Independent t test was computed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of protocol on SBAR technique of communication and the p value obtained was 0.001 (p<0.05) for both knowledge and practice.

SBAR, Handoff, Protocol, Nurses, Patients, Knowledge, Practice