NICU handovers – are we doing them right? Lessons from an audit

Clinical handover is a complex area of medicine that is increasingly recognised as a situation where advanced communication is essential to ensure patient safety. The current practice of handovers in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) was evaluated. Data was collected using a questionnaire; following implementation of the recommendations from the audit, a re-audit performed after two months showed a significant improvement in almost all standards of the handover. It is hoped that other units adopt a similar approach towards their handovers.