Methods
A plethora of research pertaining to the SBAR communication tool has been
conducted. After an initial assessment of the research, use of the SBAR tool was shown
to be a viable intervention for improving communication between healthcare providers.
However, understanding of the underlying mechanism and rationale behind the success of
SBAR in the healthcare setting is difficult to achieve, due to the different methodologies
and variety of outcome measures utilized in the study of the SBAR communication tool.
Therefore, the purpose of this integrated literature review is to analyze the literature
surrounding the SBAR framework in order to gain understanding of the underlying
mechanisms behind the success of SBAR. An integrated literature review approach
allows for the inclusion of multiple variables and diverse methodologies in the review,
making it the most suitable method available for analyzing the literature surrounding the
topic of SBAR pertaining to communication and patient safety (Whittemore & Knafl,
2005). The question guiding the literature review is: How does the use of SBAR during
patient handoff as compared to current practice affect communication between healthcare
providers and patient safety?
The combined search terms of “SBAR”, “Communication”, and “Patient Safety”
were entered into PubMed, the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature