Discussion
This pilot study aimed at evaluating health care
professionals’ experiences of communication before
and after the implementation of the SBAR model at
three hospital wards. The study showed that SBAR
was perceived to be a good structure to use when
reporting patients' conditions. This was also shown in
the study by Beckett and Kipnis (2009).
However, some nurses in this study indicated that it
sometimes took longer time to report when using the
SBAR model. This could be seen as negative but
may also mean that time was spent on ensuring that
important aspects were reported and that nothing was
missed (Whittingham & Oldroyd, 2014). The study
shows that SBAR was considered to facilitate patient
safety. SBAR can be seen as a checklist to ensure
that all significant aspects will be covered when
communicating patient reports, which may contribute
to patient safety. Although patient care should be
safe, indirectly we found indications of deficiencies
in patient safety. For example, when the SBAR
model was not used, which led to a risk that
important information was not communicated. It is
important that all members of the health care team
take responsibility when introducing a new model.