Human factors in clinical handover: development and testing of a 'handover performance tool' for doctors' shift handovers.

Objective: To develop and test a handover performance tool (HPT) able to help clinicians to systematically assess the quality and safety of shift handovers.

Design: The study used a mixed methods approach. In the development phase of the tool, a review of the literature and a Delphi process were conducted to sample five generic non-technical skills: communication, teamwork, leadership, situation awareness and task management.