SBAR Communication: Literature Review and Evidence Evaluation

This report provides a comprehensive literature review on the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) communication tool within healthcare settings. It explores the tool's effectiveness in improving communication between nurses and physicians, enhancing patient safety, and optimizing shift handovers. The report analyzes several research papers, including studies on electronic SBAR templates and their impact on documentation and communication in pediatric intensive care units. The findings highlight the benefits of SBAR in reducing adverse events, preventing avoidable hospitalizations, and improving overall patient outcomes. The report also discusses the importance of standardized communication frameworks and the use of SBAR in interdisciplinary teams to promote better patient care and control healthcare costs. The search terms and inclusion criteria are also mentioned in the report.

Running head: SBAR COMMUNICATION
SBAR COMMUNICATION
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Literature search
SBAR is a communication tool that is popular in health care settings for facilitation quick
and proper communication. SBAR can be used as an acronym for Situation, Background,
Assessment, and Recommendation. According to Achrekar et al., (2016) twenty nurses were
selected for assessing the effectiveness of SBAR technique and it was found that SBAR
technique has helped the nurses to have a focused and easy communication during the transition
of care and it also brought about reduced number of sentinel events in health care settings.
Standardized SBAR framework is a very useful tool for the bedside shift handover. A study
conducted by (De Meester et al., 2013),shows that 16 hospital ward patients were trained to use
the SBAR communication tool in case of the terminally ill patients which brought about better
perception of effective communication and collaboration between the nurses, decreased ICU
admissions and decrease of the unexpected avoidable deaths. According to De Meester et al.,
(2013), nurses often tend to be more descriptive whereas the physicians prefer more brief
statements in order to save time. Communication over the phone often makes communications
error prone. About 65 % of the adverse events involve communication as the attributing factors.
Narayan, (2013) has stated that there are several quality improvement projects that emphasizes
on using the SBAR communication tool in home health care. Researchers have proved its use for
preventing the avoidable hospitalizations and the hand on templates that the nurses and the
physicians uses while calling upon a physician for an exacerbated patient to prevent hospital
admissions. It has also helped to prevent the re-hospitalization of the patients with chronic
illnesses who have already has earlier signs and symptoms of health ailments.

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It can be argued that the recommendations provided by the nurse in the previous shift might not
appear to be suitable for the nurse in the next shift during a shift handover. But such risks can be
avoided by consultation with the doctor before taking up any treatment. As opposed by Achrekar
et al.,(2016), making recommendations in an SBAR template is a part of the collaborative
process and hence is important for the nurse in charge to take important decisions. A study by
Panesar, Albert, Messina & Parker, (2016), have shown that electronic SBAR template can
actually improvise and improve the documentation and communication between the nurses and
the doctors in a pediatrics unit. The research conducted by the author have shown that
documentation of the notifications by the physician and the bedside nurses reached 100 % when
electronic SBAR notes were used for charting and improving the documentation of the clinical
results. The study also found that about 100 % of the nurses attested to the SBAR notes without
miss which signified that there had been an increased communication between the nurses,
attending physicians and the patients (Panesar, Albert, Messina & Parker, 2016).
It can be said from these studies that introduction of the SBAR tool had prepared the
nurses better before calling for a doctor by using the SBAR parameters in a patient's records.
SBAR communication has proven to be highly effective in the communication between the
interdisciplinary teams. It is also useful in the organization of the care reports between the case
managers and the members of the interdisciplinary team. The SBAR tool of communication is
effective evidence based strategy that is normally used when the communications are made
difficult by critical situations. In overall it promotes patient safety, enhance the patient outcomes,
control the health care costs by avoiding repeated hospitalizations.

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Search terms
Websites like CINAHL, PUBMED and MEDLINE have been brainstormed for searching
the relevant data related to SBAR communication tool. Search terms that have been used for this
search are SBAR, electronic medical record, pediatric, communication technique, Inter-
professional communications, shift handover, nurse-patient communication. Inclusion criteria
included full text peer reviewed journals not more than five years from now.
Evaluation of the evidences
The paper by Achrekar et al., (2016), belonged to the level of evidence II as the
evidences are obtained from one well designed Randomised control trial and was successful in
evaluating the compliance to the documentation of SBAR.
The paper by De Meester, Verspuy, Monsieurs & Van Bogaert, (2013), belongs to the
hierarchy of evidence II as the evidence has been obtained from one well designed RCT and it
could determine the effects of SBAR in the nurse patient interaction.
The paper by Narayan, (2013) is a systematic review and belongs to the level I. The
strength of this paper is that it could well establish the effectiveness of using SBAR is home care,
in between the patient case managers and the members of the interdisciplinary team.
The paper by Panesar, Albert, Messina & Parker, (2016), belongs to the level II of the
evidence based hierarchy as the evidences are based on a well developed RCT. The study
focuses on the effectiveness of the electronic SBAR templates. In this paper three periods have

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been evaluated. 1. The electronic documentation 2. Paper documentation 3. Electronic
documentation with an SBAR template.

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References
Achrekar, M. S., Murthy, V., Kanan, S., Shetty, R., Nair, M., & Khattry, N. (2016). Introduction
of Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation into Nursing Practice: A
Prospective Study. Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing, 3(1), 45–50.
http://doi.org/10.4103/2347-5625.178171
De Meester, K., Verspuy, M., Monsieurs, K. G., & Van Bogaert, P. (2013). SBAR improves
nurse–physician communication and reduces unexpected death: A pre and post
intervention study. Resuscitation, 84(9), 1192-1196. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2013.03.016
Narayan, M. C. (2013). Using SBAR communications in efforts to prevent patient
rehospitalizations. Home Healthcare Now, 31(9),
504-515.doi:10.1097/NHH.0b013e3182a87711
Panesar, R. S., Albert, B., Messina, C., & Parker, M. (2016). The effect of an electronic SBAR
communication tool on documentation of acute events in the pediatric intensive care unit.
American Journal of Medical Quality, 31(1), 64-68.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1062860614553263

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