Conducting nursing clinical handover training in bilingual context: Challenges, strategies and ethical concerns

Effective clinical nursing handover involves the transfer of responsibility and accountability for patient care between nurses, leading to better patient safety and continuity of care. Nurses in bilingual contexts, such as Hong Kong –where nurses are trained in English but communicate in Cantonese – may find it challenging to deliver a safe clinical handover. This presentation will report an on-going research about nursing handover training. It will discuss the challenges, strategies and ethical concerns when conducting professional training in bilingual context.

Six hundred selected bilingual nurses in Hong Kong were trained according to the ISBAR and CARE-team protocols, and their perceptions of complete and structured handovers were evaluated before and after training using the questionnaire. The nurses reported that they were more selfconfident in their handover experiences, with a deeper understanding of ISBAR and CARE-team protocols after the training, leading to better (i.e., more structured and interactive) clinical handover between nurses. The participants also share the possible ethical issues and dilemma when conducting professional trainings among staff when teaching and delivering content in both Cantonese and English.