Shift Handover

The Health and Safety Executive has developed a number of key principles for ensuring effective shift handovers  

Plan for safety-critical procedures to be completed within one shift. 

Place greater reliance on written communication between handovers of 12-hour shifts. 

Two-way, with both participants taking joint responsibility 

Done using both written and verbal communication 

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Effective Shift Handover—A Literature Review, Report No. OTO 96... 

At shift handover at 18 00, the incoming operations supervisor was briefed by the day supervisor. The conversation centered on the vibration fault and subsequent repair work carried out. However, no mention was made of the work on the PRV, so consequently none of the incoming shift were aware of it. The night shift supervisor, wanting to return pump A to standby as soon as possible, asked the plant operator to check the status of the pump, and together with the shift electrician, to reset it and put it back on stand-by. The operator, unaware of the work being done on the PRV, did not check this part of the system and, following inspection of the pump, returned it to stand-by. 

Mayor, E., Bangtalta-, A., Aiibot, M. (2011). Task uncertainty and communication during nursing shift handovers. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 6S(9), 1956-1966. 

Operator inattention Following procedures Supervisor absence Communication - shift handover Trailers too close to hazards... 

Errors and mistakes can be reduced by the use of instruction, training and relevant information. However, communication can also be a problem, particularly at shift handover times. Environmental and organizational factors, involving workplace stress will also affect error levels. 

Extenslon/Shift handover signature confirming checks have been made that plant remains safe to be worked on, and new acceptance/workers made fully aware of hazards/precautlons. New time expiry given. 11 Extenslon/Shift handover... 

HSE s Safety Alert review of oil/fuel storage sites in early 2006 indicated that many sites had structured shift handover formats in place, but some relied on event-type logs or unstructured logs that did not clearly specify the type of information that needed to be communicated. 

Safety-critical tasks, such as commencement of fuel transfer, tank changeover, and end of transfer, should generally be scheduled to avoid shift handover times. 

Facilities/arrangements to minimise distractions at shift handover. 

Cullen noted many deficiencies in the Permit to Work system on Piper Alpha, including the lack of any consistent practice of physically locking-off isolated equipment, and the absence of a review or discussion of permits at shift handover. 

At 0715, the day supervisor arrived late, so he missed the shift handover. 

There was poor communication during shift handover. 

Shift handover objective Provide a snapshot overview of the system and prepare the next shift for any ramifications from the last shift. 

Knowledge of the shift handover procedure Knowledge of the different items contained within the shift handover procedure Knowledge of the current system status... 

Ability to undertake shift handover procedure Safety... 

Ability to articulate current system status in a form amenable for the shift handover... 

Plan 1.2. Open POE shift handover in Lotus Notes, then do 1.2.1-1.2.8 as required, then Exit... 

Knowledge of shift handover procedure and contents Knowledge of current system state... 

AbiUty to articulate current system state (i.e., eacU shift handover element)... 

Is there a process to identify and define the communications requirements for the safe operation of the plant (e.g., shift handover, control room to field or maintenance communications) ... 

Is there a defined structure for shift handover arrangements ... 

Poor-quality shift handovers mean that safety-critical information is not transferred adequately, that the incoming team s situational awareness is below par, and the potential for errors is increased. A number of major (and well-publicized) accidents have been attributed to poor shift handovers. 

In terms of human factors best practice it can be broadly recommended that shift handovers should not necessarily default to an overtly streamlined act. The risk is that efficiencies gained in the explicit situation come at the cost of the equally valuable implicit situation. In general, human factors best practice would suggest ample opportunity for interaction and team overlap, actively supported to create the conditions for favorable implicit interaction and situational awareness. 

On the basis of the analysis undertaken on the shift pattern proposed by the organization, it was conclnded that both the summer and winter shift cycles compared favorably with the notional ideal. In fact, the proposed shift pattern is more human-centered, as the summer and winter rotas offer four and three out of six weekends off, respectively, which is likely to be preferred by people with families. The time allocated for shift handover was assessed as satisfactory on the basis of observational data from a previous study. 

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