EFFECTIVE HANDOVER.

Running head: EFFECTIVE HANDOVER 1
Effective handover
Name
Institutional Affiliation

EFFECTIVE HANDOVER 2
Importance of an effective handover
During my placement period, I was working in the children’s unit. I was tasked with duties and
responsibilities such as administration of oral drugs, injections, wound care, cleaning among
other tasks. At all times, I learnt that effective handover at the end of my shift was essential as
reflected henceforth using the Gibbs reflection cycle.
Event description
At one time, I was due for the night shift and arrived 30 minutes before the commencement of
my shift. The outgoing nurse hurriedly gave a written in-patient record and left. No formal
nursing handover was conducted. Regrettably, a 6 years old pneumatic boy had been admitted
just before my arrival. Little did I know that the outgoing shift had just given an IV for
rehydration while awaiting lab results.
Feelings
It was a bad feeling to realize during my rounds that the child was still in pain with no treatment
given. This was courtesy of poor nursing handing over contrary to the sixth NSQHS standard
(Iedema, Piper, & Manidis, 2015).
Evaluation
From this incident, I came to learn that through effective nursing handover, identification of
patient and matching of procedures is achievable (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality
in Healthcare, 2012).
Analysis