"Mr Smith's been our problem child today…": anticipatory management communication (AMC) in VA end-of-shift medicine and nursing handoffs.

Background: Tools and procedures designed to improve end-of-shift handoffs through standardisation of processes and reliance on technology may miss contextually sensitive information about anticipated events that emerges during face-to-face handoff interactions. Such information, what we refer to as anticipatory management communication (AMC), is necessary to ensure timely and safe patient care, but has been little studied and understood.

Objective: To investigate AMC and the role it plays in nursing and medicine handoffs.

"Anybody on this list that you're more worried about?" Qualitative analysis exploring the functions of questions during end of shift handoffs.

Background: Shift change handoffs are known to be a point of vulnerability in the quality, safety and outcomes of healthcare. Despite numerous efforts to improve handoff reliability, few interventions have produced lasting change. Although the opportunity to ask questions during patient handoff has been required by some regulatory bodies, the function of questions during handoff has been less well explored and understood.

Context, culture and (non-verbal) communication affect handover quality.

Background: Transfers of care, also known as handovers, remain a substantial patient safety risk. Although research on handovers has been done since the 1980s, the science is incomplete. Surprisingly few interventions have been rigorously evaluated and, of those that have, few have resulted in long-term positive change.

Train-the-Trainer Project meets organization's strategic initiative for retention and continuous learning.

Increasing staff education needs, limited staff development resources, and retention of valuable staff are issues facing healthcare providers today. This article describes the use of project management methodology to design and implement a Train-the-Trainer (TTT) program. This TTT program describes how to enlist leadership support for staff presentation of educational offerings.