We identified 46 articles describing handoff
mnemonics. Thirty-two articles (69.6%) included
SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment,
Recommendation). The majority (82.6%) of articles
were published in recent years, which is not
surprising given that the Joint Commission’s
National Patient Safety Goal on handoffs was first
issued in 2006. What is surprising is the lack of
high-quality outcomes studies.
Only 4 of 46 (8.7%) reviewed articles collected
data on handoff mnemonics. These had relatively
small sample sizes (10-100) and failed to use
validated instruments or to conduct validation of
the instruments used. One study used self-reported
familiarity with 2 mnemonics.13 Haig and
colleagues39 assessed knowledge of SBAR using a
telephone survey of 10 nurses prior to their
intervention. The authors reported achieving 96%
use of SBAR post intervention but did not provide
details on how this was measured