Table of Contents
Introduction
People must work shifts in order to maintain continuous operation. Critical information must be transmitted between these shifts to ensure efficiency and safety. Every form of communication has the potential for error. As a result, shift handover is a key action that occurs often and with little chance for error correction.
Poor Shift Handover Leads to Complications
In a series of recent high-profile, major crashes, the importance of shift handover has indeed been highlighted. Following the refinery explosion in Texas City in 2005, BP made their internal inquiry report public. Poor shift handover was recognized as a contributing factor in the accident, with the failure to convey the malfunction of a hard-wired high-level alarm between shifts cited as an example. “There were no written criteria with defined standards for shift handover,” the study noted as an explanation.
However, this isn’t a brand-new discovery. Prior to the tragedy, vital information about the condition of the condensate units was not shared at shift handover, according to the investigation into the 1988 Piper Alpha accident. This meant that operators began a motor that was not ready to use. Before that, in 1983, after the release of highly radioactive waste from Sellafield’s nuclear processing plant, failures in communication between shifts were discovered to have caused uncertainty about the composition of a particular container that was drained to the sea.
Following are the Things You Should Do for Shift Handover Success:
Some pointers on how to improve shift handover. This includes carefully describing material to be communicated, employing tools such as books during handover, using multiple communication mediums (e.g., written and spoken), allowing enough time, and building communication skills and abilities.
Theory of Communication
In the lack of particular guidance on shift handover, there’s plenty of communication advice that may be applied to shift handover in general. One factor is certain: people underestimate the complexity of the communication process and, as a result, overestimate their capacity to communicate successfully
Aspects of behavior
People must be willing to speak up if they don’t comprehend what they’ve been told; they must be willing to question what they’ve been told, and they must be willing to oppose what they’ve been taught. They must be able to anticipate what information someone else requires. They must demonstrate that they are attentive to what is being said to them. They must schedule the handover in advance.
A Different Point of View
It’s never easy to change people’s habits, especially when they don’t see an immediate advantage. As a result, having a different strategy to optimize shift handover might be beneficial.
The Obstacles to Better Handover
There are several reasons why making a positive improvement is challenging, including the fact that shift changeover is a highly complex operation. We must recognize, in particular, that the persons involved do not always have the motivation to put forth the necessary effort.
Basic Human Errors
Human error is widely acknowledged as a significant source of accidents and mishaps. Also, many of these errors occur on a regular basis with little consequence, and only rarely coincide with other occurrences to trigger an accident. As a result, it’s especially useful to be aware of the errors that take place but are rarely mentioned through institutions.
An examination of the data gathered for use upon handover.
The research was undertaken at an overseas oil production platform to establish what type of information is recorded for usage upon handover. Over a seven-day period, copies of sheets from logs and handover reports were collected from around the platform.
Minor Mishaps
Near miss assessment methods are now commonplace in most businesses, which means that all accidents should be reported, no matter how slight the effects. In practice, the effort required to report an incidence is frequently deemed to outweigh the reward. This investigation discovered 15 incidences that were recorded in logs and handover reports. The fact such incidents are now being recorded shows that log journals and handover reports could be a viable alternative for documenting these occurrences.
Tasks That You Do Every Day
It’s an oddity, but the stuff that humans perform the most are typically the ones as to which we know the least. It’s because they are frequently not covered by protocols, and when they are, there is little evidence that they took place. The information on everyday tasks documented in logs and handover notes is probably more accurate than other sources of information.
Improved shift handover necessitates the implementation of systems like protocols, training and assessment, monitoring, and auditing. Additionally, behavioral factors must be addressed, which may be really something organizations historically tended to avoid. The face-to-face part of a shift change can be aided by structured logs and handover summaries. It’s also essential to identify that certain circumstances, such as continuous maintenance and departures from the regular operation, pose a higher risk and require special attention during handover.
