Patient Handover Process Problems between Emergency Medical Service Personnel and Emergency Department Nurses

Patient handover is one of the safety threatening processes in caring for critical patients, deficiencies in which can be the initiator of future problems for the patient. The present study aimed to determine the problems existing in patient handover process between emergency medical service (EMS) technicians and nursing staff of emergency department (ED) in university affiliated health centers in Khuzestan province, Iran.
In the present cross-sectional study, initially, the researcher prepared 2 separate questionnaires for evaluating the existing problems regarding giving and receiving the patient. After confirming their validity and reliability, the questionnaires were given to 100 EMS technicians of Khuzestan province, Iran, and 101 ED nurses of teaching hospitals in Khuzestan province, Iran, who were randomly selected. The resulting data were then analyzed.
Based on the obtained findings, 100% of the participants in big and intermediate cities had a high level of problems in the protocol of giving patients and 92.9% of those who were enrolled had a high level of problems regarding receiving patients.
Based on the results of the current study, the most common problem in patient handover was lack of knowledge among the personnel of both groups regarding the existing protocols in this area. Another considerable point was presence of interpersonal communication problems in both groups.