In healthcare, a change-of-shift report is a meeting between healthcare providers at the change of shift in which vital information about and responsibility for the
patient
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ...
is provided from the off-going provider to the on-coming provider (Groves, Manges, Scott-Cawiezell, 2016).
Other names for change-of-shift report include handoff, shift report, handover, or sign-out. Change-of-shift report is key to
inpatient
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other healt ...
care because healthcare providers (
nurses
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ca ...
,
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
s,
nursing assistants etc.) are essential to providing around the clock care.
Nursing change-of-shift report
During report, the outgoing nurses discuss with the oncoming nurses the condition of each patient and any changes that have occurred to the patient during the shift. The purpose is not to cover all details recorded in the patient's medical record, but to summarize individual patient progress. The content of the report often depends on the local organization.
Issues with report
While report is necessary in order to communicate important information between nurses, various problems are posed by the giving of report.
* Nurses in many places are legally not permitted to leave the facility until the provider has given report to the next shift. "Walking off the job" may be considered abandonment, which may be grounds for revocation of the nurse's license. At the same time, facilities are not legally required in all places to pay nurses for the extra time beyond their shift they are forced to stay over to complete report. It is not uncommon for nurses to attend report in their own time before and after a shift.
* While privacy laws require report to be given in a location where unauthorized people cannot hear the report (patients and authorized visitors for that patient are allowed to hear their report, but patients and visitors are not allowed to hear reports for other patients), some facilities prohibit family members from visit