# Standardisation Strategies for Nursing Handovers in Paediatric Hospitalisation: A Scoping Review

## TL;DR

This review explores strategies to standardize nursing handovers in pediatric hospitals, finding that tools like SBAR are used but more pediatric-specific research is needed.

## Contribution

The study maps current strategies for standardizing nursing handovers in pediatric settings and highlights the lack of pediatric-specific evidence.

## Key findings

- Most structured communication tools are developed for adult or medical contexts, not pediatric nursing.
- SBAR, I-PASS, and Flex 11 are common tools used in hospital settings.
- Evaluation instruments like Handoff CEX Scale are used to assess handover quality.

## Abstract

Background/Objectives: To identify existing evidence on strategies for standardising nursing handovers in paediatric hospital settings, given their impact on communication, safety, and quality of care. International bodies such as the WHO and The Joint Commission recommend standardisation as a key measure to reduce patient safety incidents. Methods: A scoping review was conducted in December 2022 using Medline, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and CINAHL databases. The search strategy included documents published between 2012 and 2022, in Spanish, English, Catalan, French, and/or Portuguese. We screened according to inclusion criteria (professional nurses and hospitalisation) and exclusion criteria (intensive care and medical professionals) and tabulated the results according to concurrent themes. The PRISMA-ScR guidelines were followed. Results: A total of 308 records were identified. After screening, 25 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. Following quality appraisal, six were excluded for not meeting predefined criteria, resulting in 19 studies included in the final synthesis. The evidence mapped shows that most structured communication tools have been developed or validated in adult or medical contexts, with limited evaluation in paediatric nurse-to-nurse inpatient settings. Standardised structured communication tools used in hospital settings include SBAR, I-PASS, and Flex 11, while assessment instruments such as the Handoff CEX Scale and Handover Evaluation Scale have been applied to evaluate handover quality. Conclusions: Structured communication tools may contribute to improving information transfer and perceived quality of handover; however, paediatric nurse-specific evidence remains limited and frequently derives from non-nursing or adult contexts. Further adaptation and validation in paediatric inpatient nursing settings are required.