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Background: Patient handover (handoff in America) is the transfer of information and accountability among nurses assigned to patient care. Introduction, Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (ISBAR) is currently the most popular framework for framing handovers. However, research shows that incomplete handovers and information transfers among healthcare providers and nurses exist and are responsible for adverse patient events. Materials and Methods: The current systematic review aims to view contemporary literature on handover, especially but not exclusively in psychiatric settings, and to extract current conditions from Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) using the ISBAR framework. A total of fifty-five scientific papers were selected to support the scoping review. Eligibility criteria included structured research to analyze outcomes, completed by reviewing policy papers and professional organization guidelines on I/SBAR handovers. Results: Our systematic review shows that the application of ISBAR increases interprofessional communication skills and confidence and the quality of the transfer of clinical information about patients, resulting in increased patient safety and quality of care. Conclusions: Implementing the knowledge and application of structured patient handover will respond to current recommendations for service improvement and quality of care. Furthermore, nurses who use ISBAR also reported its benefits as they feel they can deliver what is required for patient care information in a structured, fast, and efficient way. A further increase in the efficacy of handovers is reported by using EPR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The study objective was to epidemiologically analyse patients presenting at an adult and mixed-gender psychiatric inpatient unit in Essex, Kingswood Centre, UK, to report the predominant diagnoses, gender, and admission duration. Method and material: Meta-analysis and descriptive statistics analysed the year 2016 discharge data on Excel® for 162 patients. ICD-10 codes classified their mental illnesses. Results: Meta-analysis evidenced statistically significant heterogeneity in numbers admissions (I2=95%; p=0.001), length (I2=78%; p=0.001), and gender (I2=76%; p=0.001). The prevailing diagnosis was borderline personality disorder (BPD) (rate, 95% CI=0.46 [0.38-0.54]). The longest admission was for schizoaffective disorder (mean duration, 95% CI=53 [22.65-83.34], p=0.001). Gender presented a prevalence of male over female admissions for schizophrenia (OR, 95% CI=0.14 [0.05-0.35], p=0.001) and BPD with prevalence of female over male admissions (OR, 95% CI=2.79 [1.35-5.76], p=0.05). Conclusion: Female patients with BPD were the most represented category in non-forensic psychiatric inpatient wards in the population studied. Male patients with schizophrenia represented the other gender highly represented. The longest admission was recorded for schizoaffective disorder due to the complexity to treat both mood and psychotic symptoms. It is likely that women with BPD will be the future recipients of psychiatric inpatient and outpatient healthcare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the type, severity and progression of psychiatric pathologies in a sample of 372 outpatients (age range 18-65 years) referred by their primary general practitioners (GPs) to an Urgent Referral Team (URT) based in a psychiatric hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland. This team offers immediate appointments (1- to 7-day delays) for rapid assessments and early interventions to the outpatients referred by their primary family doctors. Method: One-sample t-test and z statistic were used for data analysis. From the total population, a convenience sample of 40 people was selected and assessed to evaluate whether follow-up appointments after the first visit could reduce the severity of suicidal ideation, depression and anxiety in the outpatients seen by the URT. A two-sample t-test and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to assess the variations in the scores during the follow-up visits. Results: We found a statistically significant prevalence of depressive disorders, comorbid with anxiety at first presentation in people who were females, white, never married, living with a partner, not studying and not in paid employment. The common presentation of borderline personality disorder and dysthymia in this population underscores its vulnerability to major socioeconomic challenges. Conclusion: The data confirmed the impact that primary care cooperation with psychiatric hospitals can have on the psychiatric system, and as a reflection, on the population's mental health and well-being. In fact, active cooperation and early diagnosis and intervention will help detect cases at risk in the general population and reduce admissions into hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent increase in the number of patients accessing healthcare services with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder continues to put unprecedented pressure on healthcare professionals. It is likely that considerable national health service resources will have to be allocated to these patients in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent increase in the number of patients accessing healthcare services with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder continues to put unprecedented pressure on healthcare professionals. It is likely that considerable national health service resources will have to be allocated to these patients in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]