Patients who are acutely unwell often need to be moved from one clinical environment to another, as their clinical condition changes, or additional tests/investigations are required. The transfer may be an intrahospital transfer, where the patient is moved between departments in the same building (for example, from the Accident and Emergency Department to the HDU), or it may be an interhospital transfer, where the patient is moved to another hospital for specialist investigations or treatment.

Legally, the decision to transfer a patient is ultimately the responsibility of the attending consultant. From an ethical perspective, this should be an act of beneficence and made in the best interests of the patient. Occasionally, transfer may occur for non-clinical reasons, but ideally no patient should be moved on the grounds of bed capacity alone. Whatever the circumstances, the same principles of care apply. Whilst a multidisciplinary approach to patient transfer should always be adopted, the nurse has a key role in facilitating the meticulous preparation of the patient, the accompanying staff, the equipment to be taken and the documentation to be completed. Healthcare professionals are accountable for their own actions and have a responsibility to ensure that they are clinically competent to undertake a transfer. Nurses, however, owing to their close proximity to the patient, are in a unique position to take overall responsibility for the transfer process, effectively liaising with other members of the multidisciplinary team and safely coordinating all events.