Functioning of Care Teams during Clinical Handover in the Reference Maternity Wards of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso

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Introduction: Clinical handover refers to the transfer of responsibility for patient care from one provider or team to another through the exchange of essential information. Assessments of its implementation and evaluation have highlighted several shortcomings in the program. This study examined how healthcare teams conduct clinical handovers in three referral maternity hospitals in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from August to November 2023 among healthcare workers in the maternity wards of three tertiary hospitals: Yalgado Ouedraogo, Tengandogo, and Bogodogo University Hospitals. Exhaustive sampling with consecutive recruitments was performed. Data were collected using an interviewer-adminstered questionnaire. Epi Info version 7.1.6 was used for data analysis. Variables were described using the mean and proportion.Results: Overall, 53.31% of the eligible healthcare workers participated in the study. The mean age was 41±6 years, and length of professional experience was 12.9±4.3 years. Midwifery staff accounted for 81.06% of the participants. Written communication is the most common method of information exchange between healthcare professionals. However, the quality of the written information was inadequate in more than half of the cases, creating potential risks for patient safety. Team functioning during clinical handover was suboptimal, characterized by limited interaction between teams and informal overlapping handover periods, with 49.70% of scheduled overlaps not being respected.Conclusion: The functioning of care teams during shift changes showed several deficiencies related to team dynamics, composition, and activities. The development and implementation of standardized procedures are needed to improve clinical communication between healthcare professionals in referral maternity units.

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