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BACKGROUND: The information provided during the postoperative handover influences the delivery of care of patients in the postoperative recovery unit through their care on the ward. There is a need for a structured and systematic approach to postoperative handover. The aim of this study was to improve postoperative handover through the implementation of a new handover protocol, which involved a handover proforma and standardization of the handover process. METHODS: This prospective pre-post intervention study demonstrated the improvement in postoperative handover through standardization. There was a significant reduction in information omissions and task errors and improvement in communication and teamwork with the new handover protocol. RESULTS: There was a significant reduction in overall information omissions from 9 to 3 (P <.001) omissions per handover and task errors from 2.8 to .8 (P <.001) with the new handover protocol. Teamwork and nurses' satisfaction score significantly improved from a median of 3 to 4 (P <.001) and median of 4 to 5 (P <.001). Duration of handover decreased from a median of 8 to 7 minutes (P <.376). CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates that standardization of postoperative handover improved communication and teamwork and reduced information omissions and task errors. There was an improvement in the quality of the handover after the introduction of the new handover protocol, which was easy and simple to use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors discusses aspects of mentorship services in laparoscopy and robot-assisted techniques in urology in Great Britain. They emphasized the importance of mentorship in the field of urology to teach the necessary skills to surgeons in performing these techniques in a safe, cost-effective, and operating theatre transferable way in short training times. However, they mention that some surgeons will find it uncomfortable and resist the assistance and evaluation of mentors.

In this article the authors discuss the status and important factors of educational research on urology. They states that educational research contributes in the improvement of ways on how to care for patients. They argue that for an educational research to be successful it must have the necessary funding, focuses on education and training on surgery, and evaluation of training programmes.