Background:An accurate handover of clinical information was of great importance to
continuity and safety of care. If clinically relevant information was not shared accurately and
in a timely manner it may lead to adverse events, delays in treatment and diagnosis,
inappropriate treatment and omission of care. Aims: This study aimed to examine the
influence of the three different nurses handover styles on select patient safety indicators.
Design: A comparative record-based prospective design was used to carry out this study.
Subject and Method: The subjects of this study consist of 130 staff nurses and 6 head
nurses at the critical care units of General Mahalla Hospital that affiliated to Ministry of
Health Tools Data for this study were collected using three tools, namely, Interview
questionnaire for head nurses, an observation checklist (for oral and bedside handover) an
audit checklist (for written and bedside handover), and a data abstraction form for the patient
safety indicators Results: The staff nurses in the oral group (60%) had adequate application
of handover process compared to (87%)of those in the written group and (95.5%) in the
bedside group. the most adequate practice of head nurses was in the bedside group (100%)
and lowest in the oral group (33.3%). Conclusion: The bedside and written handover styles
are better than the oral style in terms of patient safety. Recommendations: The bedside
nursing handover style should be the style of choice to be applied whenever possible, Nurses
should have regular training in process of handover. Important areas for future research
include developing a minimum dataset requirement for handover and the design and
development of technological solutions to improve the quality, standardization, and
efficiency of handover data.