SBAR template, with a clinical call example
Used by: Nurses, residents and physicians, for urgent calls, consults and handoffs.
SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) is a structure for telling another clinician what they need to know quickly and asking for what you need. It is used for paging a physician, calling a consult and handing off a patient.
The template, section by section
Situation
Who you are, who the patient is, and the problem right now in one or two sentences.
- Your name and role
- Patient and location
- The concern now
Background
The context the listener needs: diagnosis, relevant history, recent changes.
- Admitting diagnosis and day of stay
- Relevant history
- Recent treatments and changes
Assessment
What you found and what you think is happening.
- Vital signs and findings
- Your assessment of the problem
Recommendation
What you want, and by when.
- Specific request
- Timeframe
- Read back the plan
SBAR example
A synthetic example written for an invented patient. It is not a real patient record or medical advice.
Situation
This is Maria, the night nurse on 5 West, calling about the patient in room 512. Her blood pressure has dropped to 88/50 over the last hour.
Background
She is a 68-year-old admitted 2 days ago with pneumonia on IV ceftriaxone and azithromycin. Her blood pressure has been 120s over 70s. She received her evening furosemide dose at 18:00.
Assessment
HR 112, up from 88. Temperature 38.6. RR 24, SpO2 91% on 2 L, from 95%. She is more drowsy but answers questions. Urine output 20 mL in the last 2 hours. I am worried about sepsis.
Recommendation
I would like you to come and see her in the next 15 minutes. Can I draw blood cultures and a lactate now and give a fluid bolus while you come? Read back: blood cultures times two, lactate, 1 L lactated Ringer’s, recheck vitals in 15 minutes, physician at bedside in 15 minutes.
Tips from practice
- Lead with the problem, not the history.
- Make the recommendation a specific request with a time.
- Close with a read-back so both sides agree on the plan.
Let the note write itself in this format
Scribeable writes the note from the visit in the template you choose and suggests the codes, and each sentence drawn from the visit links back to where it came from. You review and sign.
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Questions
- What does SBAR stand for?
- Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation.
- What is the difference between SBAR and I-PASS?
- SBAR structures a single call or request. I-PASS (Illness severity, Patient summary, Action list, Situation awareness, Synthesis by receiver) structures a full handoff of a patient list at sign-out.
Reviewed 2026-11-08.