The approach of SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation)
for handovers helps in structuralizing given information [11] and improving knowledge
and self-confidence among students practicing handovers in safe circumstances [5].
Recently, it was reported by a domestic research that after an education program of
SBAR was conducted among nurses, their communication clarity, the medical staff’s
satisfaction, information organizing skills, and patients’ safety were all improved [12]. In
particular, communication clarity, which is required to emphasize imminent problems
and present them in a logical order, turned out to be improved most significantly after the
application of the SBAR program. However, there are few domestic hospitals that adopt
SBAR tools in handovers, and there are few researches on this matter either. It is
necessary to verify if SBAR is substantially effective and to provide nursing students
with opportunities to learn and demonstrate handover methods and contents in a specific
and standardized way.
Accordingly, this study aims to grasp the current condition of handover
communication that nursing students actually experience in clinical practice, analyze
handover contents by means of SBAR, and thus provide the basis for the development of
handover communication strategies and education programs in the future.