Free tool
SBAR template
Print it with guided prompts while you learn the structure, or as blank sections once you don't need them — one or two SBARs per page. Nothing to sign up for and nothing to download first.
Opens your browser's print dialog — choose "Save as PDF" as the destination to download it.
How to give an SBAR hand-off
SBAR works because it forces the urgent thing first and the ask last — the two parts a nervous caller most often buries.
- 1
Open with the situation in two sentences
Who you are, which patient, and the concern right now — including the number or change that made you pick up the phone. The listener decides how fast to move on this alone, so lead with it.
- 2
Give only the background that changes decisions
Admitting diagnosis, the relevant history and procedures, current meds and drips, allergies, code status. Everything else is in the chart; background is the two or three facts the listener needs to interpret what comes next.
- 3
Report an assessment, not just numbers
Vitals with their trend, the focused findings that matter, and — the part new nurses skip — what you think is going on. You are allowed to be wrong; you are not allowed to make the listener guess why you called.
- 4
Close with a concrete recommendation
Say what you need and how soon: come and see the patient, give an order, transfer. Then read back anything new. A hand-off that ends without an ask leaves the next step owned by nobody.
What it sounds like
The same four moves on a real call — a post-op patient who has started to bleed. Notice how short each section is, and that the call ends on a question the listener has to answer.
Dr Patel, this is Amina on 4 West. I’m calling about Mr Okafor in 412 — his blood pressure has dropped to 88 over 54 and his heart rate is up to 118.
He’s day one after a right hemicolectomy. History of hypertension — his lisinopril was held this morning. Allergic to penicillin, full code.
He’s pale and drowsy but answering me. His abdomen is firmer than this morning and the drain has put out 400 millilitres of fresh blood in the last hour. I think he’s bleeding.
I need you to see him now. I’d like to repeat the full blood count and have two units cross-matched before you arrive — and should I start a second IV line?
Guided prompts, until you don't need them
The guided version prints a cue line inside each section — what belongs there, in the order a listener expects it — so the sheet teaches the structure every time you fill one in. Once the order is automatic, switch to blank sections and the same page becomes a plain hand-off sheet.
One SBAR per page leaves writing room for a complex call; two per page suits practising scenarios in pairs, or a shift where you expect more than one escalation. The patient strip at the top ties the sheet to a patient the way the report sheet does — switch it off if yours already lives on a report sheet.
The studying around the call is worth money
Clear clinical communication is a skill the cohort behind you is still building — and the prep sheets, worked examples and clinical guides you write while building it yourself are exactly what they pay for. Structured, original study material keeps selling long after your own last hand-off of the semester.
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Frequently asked questions
Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation — a fixed order for handing over clinical information. Situation says what is happening now, background gives the context that explains it, assessment says what you make of it, and recommendation says what should happen next. The order is the point: urgent first, ask last, nothing forgotten in between.
Any time patient information has to cross a gap quickly: shift hand-off, calling a provider overnight, escalating to a rapid response team, transferring a patient between units. It earns its keep most when you are nervous — the structure carries the call so you can concentrate on the content.
Situation: patient, location, and the concern in one line with the triggering vitals. Background: admitting diagnosis, relevant history, current meds and drips, allergies, code status. Assessment: latest vitals with trends, focused findings, and what you think is going on. Recommendation: what you need, how soon, what you have already done, and a read-back of new orders. The guided version of the template prints these prompts on the sheet.
Yes, and there is nothing to sign up for. Printing uses your browser’s own print dialog — choose “Save as PDF” as the destination if you want a file rather than paper, and set a page count first to print a pack in one go.
Yes — most programmes teach it in the first clinical course, and instructors expect to hear it in post-conference. Start with the guided prompts and rehearse out loud before you call; the structure becomes automatic faster than you expect, and then the blank version is all you need. Two per page is handy for practising a pair of scenarios.
Your own study material — clinical prep sheets, communication guides, pharm summaries in your own words — is your work, and students behind you pay for good versions of it. A filled-in SBAR about a real patient is different: anything with real patient details stays at the hospital. The blank template is yours; the studying around it is what sells.