What does it mean to conduct a high-quality handover? On the face of it, the answer is simple – it comes down to applying the right communication skills and conveying the right information. 

However, in practice it’s easy to cut corners. The demands of day-to-day practice, including possible staff shortages and time constraints, can sometimes lead to suboptimal handovers. This in turn can lead to dissatisfied patients who feel rushed, undervalued and uninformed. 

“If we don’t do a handover, we risk the patient feeling less cared for,” says Sarah Morgan MCOptom, Staff Development Consultant and Vision Sciences Fellow at the University of Manchester. 

“The patient has often given us lots of information about their needs, and what they hope to achieve from their visit, and now they’ve got to start that conversation again with someone else. Worse still, they may not get the optimal services or products,” she adds.

Getting handovers right is therefore an integral aspect of patient care – no less so than the eye examination itself.