Handoffs, Messages & Professional Communication
Workplace product
Written handoff / SBAR message
Course goals advanced
- 4. Documentation-Style Writing and Professional Responsibility
- 2. Professional Workplace Writing
- 5. Summarizing and Paraphrasing
- 1. Grammar and Sentence Competency
Essential Question
What information does another healthcare professional need from me to safely continue the patient's care?
Teaching & Learning Concepts
The communication principles, workplace expectations, and healthcare context behind this topic.
- Relevant information: what the next person must know to act safely
- Prioritization — the most important thing goes first, not last
- Conciseness without omission
- SBAR as a communication framework: Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation
- Closed-loop communication — the receiver repeats it back so both people know it landed
- Avoiding ambiguity: 'soon', 'a lot', and 'later' mean different things to different people
Grammar Focus
A small set of high-value grammar skills, tied directly to this topic's communication task.
Adjectives and adverbs
- What each one modifies: adjectives describe nouns, adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs
- Changing adjectives into adverbs — usually by adding -ly
- good / better / best, and the difference between 'good' and 'well'
- less versus fewer: less for amounts you cannot count, fewer for things you can
- much versus many, on the same principle
Verb tenses
- Present, past, and future, and what each one signals in a handoff
- Progressive forms (helping verb + -ing) for action that is ongoing right now
- Avoiding shifting tenses mid-report, which makes the timeline unreadable
Healthcare Vocabulary
This topic's spelling and usage words. Earlier lists spiral forward — turn them on to review.
Word Bank — List 5
Flip each card for the meaning and an example.
Formative Practice
Guided activities and short exercises. None of this is graded — it is here so you can find out what you know before it counts.
Adjectives, adverbs, and tense
The grammar of a handoff — precision about quantity, degree, and when.
Practice only — nothing here is graded or recorded.
Fix an unclear handoff
Each of these was said at a shift change. Rewrite so the next person can act on it.
Self-scored practice. Your writing stays in this browser.
As written
Room 4 isn't doing great, you might want to keep an eye on them.
The problem: No name, no measurement, no threshold. 'Keep an eye' does not say what to watch or what to do.
Write your version first — comparing before you try teaches nothing.
As written
The patient in bed 2 has some allergies so be careful with meds.
The problem: 'Some allergies' and 'be careful' give the receiver nothing usable. Which allergen, and what reaction?
Write your version first — comparing before you try teaches nothing.
Build an SBAR handoff
Four sections. Situation is why you are calling right now; Background is what led here; Assessment is what you are seeing; Recommendation is what you are asking for.
Scenario
You are a patient care technician on a medical unit. Ms. Lena Okafor in room 312 was admitted two days ago for management of a leg infection. This morning her pulse was 74 and she was talkative. At 1500 you record pulse 112, respirations 24, temperature 101.6°F, and she is quieter than usual and says she feels “strange.” Her blood pressure is 98/60, down from 128/78 this morning. You are calling the nurse.
Who you are, who the patient is, and why you are calling — in one or two sentences.
The relevant history. Why is this patient here, and what has been happening?
What you are observing now, with numbers and how they have changed. Report; do not diagnose.
What you are asking for. Be direct — 'I need you to come and see her now' is appropriate.
Completeness check
Fill in the sections above and this will tell you what a reader would still be missing.
This checks for missing elements only. It does not judge your writing — use the Communication Check for that.
Words to spell — List 5
Flip each card for the meaning and an example.
Cumulative Workplace Product
Combine this topic's grammar, vocabulary, and communication skills into something you would actually produce at work.
Written handoff / SBAR message
Produce a written SBAR communication from the scenario above. It must be complete enough that the receiver needs to ask you nothing, and short enough to be read in under thirty seconds.
Submit through Brightspace. This page is for drafting and self-checking.
Revision & Reflection
Review your work against the Communication Check, then name one thing to improve next time.
Communication Check
Check your own writing against all five. Not graded — saved in this browser only.
Think about
- If the person receiving this could not reach you afterwards, would they still have everything they need?
- Did you state what you want to happen, or only what you observed?
- Are there any vague quantifiers left — soon, a lot, a bit, slightly?
Before You Leave
- Completed the adjective, adverb, and tense drill
- Rewrote both unclear handoffs
- Built the SBAR and ran the completeness check
- Reviewed Word Bank List 5, including the spiral words