A Study to develop, by consultation, agreed learning outcomes for the teaching of handover to medical students using Group Concept Mapping

Background : Newly qualified doctors feel unprepared for handover. This should not be unexpected, as there appears to be little formal teaching in handover in the USA or the UK. A systematic review of educational interventions to improve handover, showed a paucity of research into handover education and evidence of the effectiveness of current educational strategies. As a starting point we undertook this study to develop, by consultation, agreed learning outcomes for the teaching of handover to medical students. Summary of Work: Group Concept Mapping was used to identify a common understanding of an expert group’s common understanding about the learning outcomes for the teaching of handover to medical students. Summary of Results: 45 experts contributed to the brainstorming session. 22 of the 45 (48%) from 4 European countries completed the pruning, sorting and rating phases. 10 themes were identified with which to select learning outcomes and operationally define them to form a basis for handover training for medical students. The themes entitled ‘Being able to perform handover accurately’ and ‘Demonstrate proficiency in handover in workplace’ were rated as most important. ‘Demonstrate proficiency in handover in simulation’ and ‘ Engage with colleagues, patients and carers’ were rated most difficult to achieve. Discussion and Conclusions: 10 themes identified with which to select learning outcomes and operationally define them for handover training for medical students. Take-home messages: These learning outcomes could form the basis for future curriculum design for Handover training as newly qualified doctors need to be proficient at handover at the point of graduation otherwise this is a latent error within healthcare systems.