ABSTRACT
Objective@#To identify the impeding and promoting factors of role definition in nursing handoff, in order to increase the quality of nursing handoff.@*Methods@#Two nursing managers, 22 head nurses and four nurses were recruited by purpose sampling. Data were collected by using focus group study, and analyzed using content analysis.@*Results@#According to the framework of role transition theory, the factors could be classified as individual factors (37 items, 23.72%), organizational factors (105 items, 67.31%), effectiveness of role definition (11 items, 7.05%), and problems of role definition (3 items, 1.92%).@*Conclusions@#Role definition in nursing handoff helping the coming nurse check the performance of the last shift and transfer the nursing responsibility, contributes to the improvement of nursing quality, but there are still many factors affecting the role definition in nursing handoff.