The patient is a 26-year-old man admitted to the medical ward for observation following a traumatic brain injury from being hit in the head with a chair at a pub. A CT scan showed a small right-sided subdural hematoma. Overnight the patient was combative but settled down and slept. The night nurse checked his vitals every 30 minutes but could not wake him. His most recent vitals showed a respiratory rate of 75, blood pressure of 100/70. He remained asleep at the start of the day shift.

1. PAMELA JOY D. BOCALA
Nurse Educator
King Khalid Hospital- Najran

2. MILITARY NUCLEAR
SUBMARINE INDUSTRY

3. AVIATION
INDUSTRY

4. RAPID RESPONSE TEAM
(Kaiser Permanente)
History

5. Suzanne Graham

6. R

8. ComponentsThis tool has two documents:
 SBAR Guidelines (“Guidelines for
Communicating with
Physicians/healthcare provider
Using the SBAR Process”).
Explains in detail how to
implement the SBAR technique
 SBAR Worksheet (“SBAR report
to physician/healthcare provider
about a critical situation”). A
worksheet/script that a provider
can use to organize information
in preparation for communicating
with a physician about a critically
ill patient

9.  Urgent or non urgent
communications
 Nurse to doctor communications
 Doctor to doctor consultation
 Conversations with peers
 Change of shift report
 Rising a concern
 Discussions with allied health
professionals
- Respiratory therapy
- Physiotherapy
-Dietician

10. Other Definitions
shift report - the transfer of information from one
nurse to another about patients at change of
shift in order to provide safe, quality patient
care (Poletick & Holly, 2010)
• Other names may include: handoff report,
nurse to nurse report, handover report and
sign-off

11. ● This method of handoff shift report has improved accountability
and the critical thinking approach to events(Boaro et al., 2010).
● Use of the tool helps nurses to relay information in an objective
and professional manner while increasing their ability to justify the
recommendations chosen (Boaro et al., 2010).
○ Handoff communication becomes more comprehensive and
decreases human error.
• The nurse spent less time writing information and more time
providing patient care and critically thinking about the patient
progression Cornell, Townsend-Gervis, Yates, & Vardaman,
2014).

12. ● SBAR decreases the overall time nurses spent on shift
report, indicating a more focused process of information
transfer (Cornell, et al., 2014).
● SBAR levels the playing field for all nurses regardless of
their level of experience (Cornell, et al., 2014).
● Implementation of an SBAR shift report tool resulted in:
● greater focus and consistency of nursing shift reports
(Cornell et al., 2013).
o increased nurse to nurse communication and decreased
amount of transcribing occurred when a print form of SBAR was
provided.
o SBAR reduced adverse events and drug events (Haig, Sutton,
& Whittington, 2006).
o SBAR decreases the amount of unexpected deaths (Meester,
Verspuy, Monsieurs, & Van Bogaert, 2013).

15. REVIEW
1. A nurse tells a doctor a patient has
diabetes. Which part of the SBAR model
is this statement?
A.Situation
B.Background
C.Assessment
D.Recommendation

16. REVIEW
2. The nurse tells the doctor a patient
felt warm when she checked him for a
fever of . What part of the SBAR model
is this statement?
A. Situation
B. Background
C. Assessment
D. Recommendation

17. REVIEW
3. In which nurse interaction can the
SBAR model be used?
A. Nurse to social worker
B. Nurse to doctor
C. Nurse to nurse
D. All answers are correct.

18. Location: General Medical Ward Time: 0700 Sunday Morning
Jason Smith is a 26-year old man admitted to the medical ward as an outlier for
observation following an assault. He has a traumatic brain injury. At 2200 last night
he was drunk in the pub and was hit over the head with a chair. He lost
consciousness for 5 minutes, but alcohol may have contributed to this. He was
transported to ER where he was combative and uncooperative, but this was
consistent with his high blood alcohol level. His Glasgow Coma Score is 14 (E = 4,
M = 6, V = 4)
A CT scan of his brain showed a small right-sided subdural haematoma. There was
a shortage of beds in the hospital so the patient was sent to a medical ward for
observation. Overnight he was looked after by a nurse who had worked in medicine
for 15 years, but had never worked in an area receiving trauma patients.
On the ward, the patient continued to be combative, but he eventually settled down
and went to sleep. The night nurse went in and checked on him every half an hour.
She recorded his RR, BP and pulse every half hour, but she couldn’t wake him up
and she put this down to the alcohol. Recent V/S RR 75bpm,BP 100/70mmHg.
He was asleep at 0700 when the nurse handed over to the relieving day nurse