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Medicine vocabulary · Hospital Departments and Staff

Handover

Meaning in medicine, with examples

/ˈhændoʊvər/nounCommon term

In medicine, handover means: The passing of information and responsibility for patients from one doctor or team to the next, usually when a shift changes.

In Turkish: nöbet devri, hasta devri, devir teslim

How it is used

A key moment for patient safety: doctors give and receive handover, often with structured tools such as SBAR. The verb is two words: 'I'll hand over the sick patients first.' The US term is handoff.

Example sentences

  1. Evening handover is at 8 pm in the doctors' room.

  2. At handover she mentioned that bed 12 might need a CT overnight.

Common collocations

  • give handover
  • morning handover
  • handover sheet
  • structured handover
  • hand over to
  • on callAvailable to be contacted and to come and help if needed, especially outside normal working hours, such as at night or at weekends.
  • ward roundA regular visit by a team of doctors, often led by a senior doctor, to see each patient on a ward, review progress and make a plan for the day.
  • stableNot changing or getting worse, especially when the vital signs and general condition stay within a safe range.
  • residentIn the US and Canada, a doctor who has finished medical school and is doing several years of supervised training in a specialty in a hospital.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Hospital Departments and Staff

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.