SBAR

SBAR is a communication tool adapted for use in healthcare from the military. It structures the message so that the most important information is emphasised. It is meant to be used for spoken communication (telephone calls) but is useful for writing notes about acute changes in a patient’s condition.

Situation

Background

Assessment

Recommendation

Situation:

who are you?

where are you?

what is the problem? (one sentence, e.g.: ‘Mrs Smith is is shock’)

Background:

more about what led to this event (a paragraph / bullet points), e.g.: Mrs Smith is 78, she was admitted two days ago with left lower lobe pneumonia. She is a type 2 diabetic and has had coronary artery surgery following a myocardial infarction two years ago. She lives at home with her husband normally and is quite independent. She was treated with ben penicillin 1.2g 4 hourly and clarythromycin 500 mg BD and has been relatively stable until two hours ago when she became hypotensive and tacky cardiac and her level of consciousness dropped.

Assessment:

ABC concentrating on abnormal findings.

What do you think is going on?

What have you done?

Recommendation:

What do you think needs to be done? What do you need to find out?

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