Session Flow · 1-3 minutes per briefing
SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation)
A four-part structure for a short, focused briefing, developed for urgent clinical conversations at Kaiser Permanente. It makes the speaker get to the point and end with a clear request, which is why it travels well to escalations, status updates and decision requests in any meeting.
When to use SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation)
Escalations, handovers, status updates and decision requests that must be short and end in a clear ask.
How SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation) works
Use it inside a block for a briefing, escalation or update item, or as the template each person follows in an update round so reports stay short and end in a request.
Phases of SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation)
- Situation: One or two sentences on what is happening right now and why you are raising it.
- Background: Only the context the listener needs to understand the situation.
- Assessment: What you think is going on and what the options are.
- Recommendation: What you propose or need from the listener, and by when.
Key principles
- Lead with the situation
- Include only relevant background
- State your own assessment
- Always end with a concrete request
- Same structure for everyone
Best for
- Escalations and handovers
- Update rounds
- Briefing senior decision-makers
- Incident communication
Considerations
- Designed for healthcare; outside it, adapt the language to the setting
- Assessment and Recommendation are the parts people most often leave out
- Not meant for open-ended exploration
Attribution & sources
Developed by Michael Leonard, Doug Bonacum and Suzanne Graham at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, early 2000s
Design a session with SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation)
METODIC builds a complete SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation)-based session — methods, timing, worksheets, and facilitator guides — in minutes.