Effectiveness of a role-play simulation program involving the sbar technique: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

Background: Accurate, skilled communication in handover is of high priority in maintaining patients' safety. Nursing students have few chances to practice nurse-to-doctor handover in clinical training, and some have little knowledge of what constitutes effective handover or lack confidence in conveying information. Objectives: This study aimed to develop a role-play simulation program involving the Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation technique for nurse-to-doctor handover; implement the program; and analyze its effects on situation, background, assessment, recommendation communication, communication clarity, hand over confidence, and education satisfaction in nursing students. Design: Non-equivalent control-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental. Participants: A convenience sample of 62 senior nursing students from two Korean universities. Method: The differences in SBAR communication, communication clarity, handover confidence, and education satisfaction between the control and intervention groups were measured before and after program participation. Results: The intervention group showed higher Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation communication scores (t = 3.05, p = 0.003); communication clarity scores in doctor notification scenarios (t = 5.50, p < 0.001); and Situation, Background, yAssessment, Recommendation education satisfaction scores (t = 4.94, p < 0.001) relative to those of the control group. There was no significant difference in handover confidence between groups (t = 1.97, p = 0.054). Conclusions: The role-play simulation program developed in this study could be used to promote communication skills in nurse-to-doctor handover and cultivate communicative competence in nursing students.