Safe and Effective Nursing Handover
Giving a safe handover is a crucial skill in nursing — and one that can feel nerve-wracking, especially as a student or newly qualified nurse. Whether it’s the start or end of your shift, a well-structured handover ensures your patients stay safe, your team stays informed, and nothing important gets missed. Also, you can sleep soundly without thinking “Did I say bed 6 was diabetic?”.
In this post, you’ll learn exactly what a safe nursing handover looks like, what to include in a nursing handover, and how to structure it using tools like SBAR. Plus, I’ve included real nursing handover examples and a free SBAR cheat sheet to help you feel more confident and clear on when it’s your turn to handover on shift.
See Also:
Burnout in Nursing: 10 Signs You’re Not Just Tired
If you are struggling with handover at shift change nerves: Grab my Complete Handover Pocket Pack
This printable student nurse handover pocket guide pack gives you everything you need to give safe, structured handovers — including SBAR prompts, real phrases, checklists, and emergency scripts. Ideal for student nurses and NQNs. Confidence in your pocket every shift!
What is a Nursing Handover?
A nursing handover (or “handoff”) is the structured communication that happens when care is transferred — typically between shifts, between wards, or when a patient moves to a different team or area. Another important time you’ll need it is when you phone the on-call doctor to review a patient. In the same way, you’ll need to get the information over quickly as their to-do list is almost as big as yours.
It’s your opportunity to share vital information about a patient’s status, care plan, and any ongoing concerns. A clear handover reduces the risk of errors, ensures continuity of care, and gives the next team the information they need to step in safely.
Why Safe Handover is Essential
Handover isn’t just a formality — it’s a patient safety tool. When done well, a handover provides the incoming team with the information they need to make safe, timely, and effective decisions. It ensures continuity of care, reduces the risk of missed observations, and helps the entire team understand what’s been done and what still needs to happen. Poor handovers are a well-known contributor to avoidable errors in healthcare — from missed doses and delayed treatments to unrecognised deterioration.
In high-pressure environments like hospitals, where care is constantly changing hands, a clear and structured handover can literally save lives. It gives you the chance to speak up about what’s worrying you, highlight red flags, and pass on crucial context that could otherwise be lost.
Safe handover is a key part of being a professional nurse. It shows you’re organised, observant, and putting the patient at the centre of everything — even when the shift is ending.
To sum up, handovers are important because:
- It prevents vital information from slipping through the cracks
- It helps build accountability and team awareness
- It gives clarity on treatment plans and patient progress
- It ensures all staff are aware of risks, care needs, and red flags
The NMC Code (The Code: Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates – The Nursing and Midwifery Council) highlights the importance of communication in delivering safe, person-centred care — and that starts with handover.
Common Handover Structures
So, how do you give a good nursing handover? The most commonly used framework in UK nursing is SBAR. There are several well studied ways to communicate in a hospital environment, but SBAR comes out on top. Back in 2007, the Joint Commission International (JCI) and the World Health Organization (ps-solution3-communication-during-patient-handovers.pdf) suggested implementation of a standardised approach to handover communication by using the SBAR. Since then, it has also been recommended by the BMJ (Safe handover | The BMJ) as the gold standard framework for hospital handovers. BMJ showed SBAR to improve the quality of handovers in a range of healthcare environments.
SBAR is:
- Situation
- Background
- Assessment
- Recommendation
You may also come across ISBAR (includes ‘Identify’) or ISHAPED, which is more detailed. But for students and new nurses, SBAR is widely accepted and easy to learn.
SBAR is considered the gold standard for handovers in healthcare settings because it provides a simple, structured, and reliable communication framework that improves safety, reduces errors, and promotes clarity — especially in high-pressure environments.
SBAR and Why it Works so Well
1. It Standardises Communication
SBAR ensures that everyone — from student nurses to consultants — speaks the same language during handover. This reduces misunderstandings and creates consistency across wards, teams, and professions.
2. It’s Quick and Focused
SBAR helps healthcare professionals get straight to the point. It strips out unnecessary waffle and makes sure critical information is prioritised — essential in emergencies or busy shift changes. Nothing worse than being really busy but someone keeps you on the phone for 20 minutes for a conversation that could have lasted 5. Don’t be that nurse that the bleep holders dread.
3. It Improves Patient Safety
Miscommunication is one of the leading causes of avoidable harm in healthcare (Preventable harm: getting the measure right | The BMJ). SBAR reduces the risk of missing vital information by prompting staff to cover the Situation, Background, Assessment, and clear Recommendation.
4. It Builds Confidence (Especially for Students)
SBAR gives students and newly qualified staff a ready-made framework they can rely on. This structure can make speaking up feel less intimidating. Particularly when escalating to senior staff or in unfamiliar situations.
5. It’s Backed by Evidence
SBAR is recommended by the NHS (SBAR-Implementation-and-Training-Guide.pdf ), NICE (Overview | Emergency and acute medical care in over 16s | Quality standards | NICE), and international patient safety bodies. Studies show that it reduces adverse events, improves team communication, and increases staff satisfaction with handover quality.
In short, SBAR is gold standard because it’s simple, effective, and proven to make healthcare communication safer. And when patient safety is the goal, clear communication isn’t optional, it’s essential.
Download the SBAR Fill-In yourself Template as part of the Complete Nursing Handover guide pack – Use this printable tool to structure your handover for each patient with confidence. Fill it in during your shift, reflect before handover, and reduce the panic of “what do I say?” when it counts most.
What to Include in a Good Nursing Handover
What to Include in a Good Nursing Handover
Handover is something that happens several times a day for each patient. But as a student, the most daunting handover is that big one at the start and end of your shift where everyone is listening and looking at you.
I used to have anxiety a half-way through my shift about the handover I’d have to do in 6 hours! I’d forget everything, my head would go blank, and my voice would mumble off to a low hum. The good news is that the more you practice – the better you get and the less anxious you will be. I wish I had this blog when I was training to give me the heads up.
Handovers used to be a big stress for me on placement. The biggest thing was not knowing what information was relevant to hand over. The more relevant and to the point a handover is, the less time you have to stand there actually handing over.
Here’s a quick-reference checklist of key areas to cover during nursing handover:
- Patient name, age & admission reason
- Relevant medical history
- Current treatment plan / medications
- Latest observations and trends
- Test results or pending investigations
- Nutrition and hydration status
- Mobility / falls risk / manual handling needs
- Pressure area care (Waterlow, skin integrity)
- DNACPR / ReSPECT/ advanced care plans
- Discharge plans or social concerns
- Any red flags or risks
Want to make sure you remember it all under pressure?
Check out my Pocket Handover Prompt Guide – your shift-time lifesaver!
Print it pocket sized and keep on your lanyard or in your pocket for a quick go-to reference when it’s your turn to do that handover.
A Real Life Nursing Example
Here’s one of my real-life examples including all of the relevant information needed to hand over as student at shift change. See how the information flows:
- “Terry is in bed one, a 80-year-old gentleman admitted yesterday with chest pain
- Terry is known to have angina and previous TIA
- Terry is on the ACS pathway, aspirin, clopidogrel and GTN spray prescribed
- NEWS is 0 and ECG was normal.
- Awaiting 1st trop from this morning bloods to come back
- Patient is eating and drinking, urine output is stable
- He is self-caring with a low risk of fall
- Waterlow score is 5
- No DNA or ReSPECT forms insitu
- Plan is home with GTN spray if trops are normal
- No concerns from this morning.”
SBAR Format Explained with Examples
SBAR is most useful when you are giving a quick snippet of the situation to get one of the Multi-disciplinary Team (MDT) to review your patient. You may be asked as a student, to call the doctor to get them to review your patient. For instance, when something on the vitals isn’t within normal range, your patient is in pain and has no analgesia prescribed or when you need to refer a patient to a specialised team like tissue viability or diabetes.
SBAR helps you structure your handover clearly and safely:
- S – Situation
What’s happening right now? Who is the patient, and why are they under your care?
Example: “This is Mrs Patel, 76, admitted with pneumonia. Currently day 3 on IV antibiotics.”
- B – Background
What relevant medical or social history do they have?
“She has a history of COPD and heart failure. Lives alone with carers twice daily.”
- A – Assessment
What are the current concerns? Include obs, pain, changes, investigations.
“O2 sats dropped to 88% this morning. New chest x-ray shows consolidation. Responding to treatment.”
- R – Recommendation
What needs monitoring or doing next? What do you need to person you are handing over to, to do? Escalation, plans, outstanding tasks?
“Continue IV therapy, repeat bloods at 6pm. Monitor for further drops in oxygen.”
Use my FREE SBAR Cheat Sheet to download or print off and practise this structure before placement! You can do this for each patient you are responsible for on a shift. In using this, handing over will be much shorter and to the point. That means less time in the spotlight.
Real Life Handover (SBAR Example)
S: Mr Khan, 58, admitted with sepsis secondary to a UTI.
B: PMH: Diabetic, high BMI, history of recurrent infections.
A: Responding to IV antibiotics. BP stabilised, urine output improved. Observations normal range.
R: Plan is to continue IVs, bloods due 18:00. Monitor temp and urine. Encourage fluids.
Why this works:
- It’s structured and focused
- It includes what’s changed
It clearly outlines what the next person needs to do
Top Tips – for Handing Over with Confidence
Write notes before handover – don’t rely on memory
- Breathe and speak slowly – nerves make us rush
- Use a prompt sheet or SBAR Cheat Sheet to stay structured (Download here)
- Speak clearly and avoid too much jargon
- Listen to others’ handovers – it builds your confidence
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Waffling or giving irrelevant background (she’s got 4 cats and 6 grandchildren -cute but irrelevant)
- Forgetting to mention treatment changes or risks (think important first)
- Speaking too quietly or rushing through (practice out loud in the mirror at home to build confidence)
- Not knowing the current plan or escalation status (preparation is key, otherwise, you’re going to get more questions – terrifying)
Mistakes happen, but being prepared helps you avoid the most common ones when giving nursing handovers. Write your handover down and get your mentor to check to make sure you haven’t missed anything important. The more you do this, the more you see how nurses’ handover effectively and you will get into the same habit.
Conclusion
Handover might feel intimidating at first, but with the right structure and practice, it becomes second nature. The key is clarity, safety, and confidence. Whether you’re a student on placement or newly qualified, use tools like SBAR and prompt guides to stay on track. What helped me overcome the fear of handing over was actually volunteering to do it! I know, I know, it sounds like the last thing your anxiety needs but honestly, the more you do it the easier it becomes. Another thing to mention is that, although it looks like everyone is judging you, they’re not. They know you are a student, and they won’t have forgotten how nerve-wrecking handing over is as a student is.
Download your FREE SBAR Cheat Sheet to get started, and don’t forget to grab my Handover Pocket Guide to keep in your lanyard or placement folder if you are serious about nailing handovers and abolishing the handover nerves.
Safe handovers save lives. You’ve got the tools — now bring the confidence. Let’s do this.
