Bedside charting?! Is this the new norm? VENT!

[RockinChick66]

We will soon be losing our nurses station where our desktops are located and will have to start using computers in the room to do bedside charting. I'm having very mixed emotions about this. We do not have COWs as the computers in the rooms are wall mounted and our back is toward the patient.

Is bedside charting becoming the norm? To me, it's very helpful to my feet and my sanity to be able to get off my feet for just minutes during the day to be able to sit and chart. Charting at the bedside when visitors are present, when patients are trying to sleep, causing us to stand even more just doesn't make good sense. Most the nurses on our floor are VERY unhappy about this change. There may be several nurses looking for another job. In fact, I've heard some nurses say "it's time to get out of here!"

I truly wish that it was a requirement for management to work in our shoes at least a week out of a year to see what we endure on a daily basis. Instead, they sit on their bottoms all day in meetings making new rules without consulting those of us that poor out the blood sweat and tears while performing our job every day!!

[Michelle A.]

Too funny!

[Michelle A.]

Oops, my last comment was for post #16, thought it would post on that , comment.

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

It is so time for me to retire.

[Vespertinas]

All the nurses, doctors, CNA's and ancillary staff are stuck with their faces in the computers, handheld devices, locator devices, and phones.

I recently started at a hospital that has handhelds for med administration and mobile phones. It makes me feel so bad now that I make much less eye contact with my patients. I feel like they must think my nose is always in that darn thing. It *really* doesn't help that they're very SLOW TO LOAD too! On a side note, they also make it awkward to sanitize my hands coming and leaving from the rooms because one hand is always occupied by this brick.

The phone is ALWAYS ringing on my hip and I have to either rudely answer it while I'm doing something else with a patient or I try to ignore it while my patients and I try to carry on a conversation with the incessant ringing.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

If i still worked the floor, and I am glad I dont, I dont think my pts would appreciate me charting my 0300 assessment at the bedside with them trying to sleep. Make it an option, not a requirement. A lot of the time I would drag my COW into the room and chart anyways when doing meds and what not but I still had the option to get out if I needed/wanted to.

[foreverLaur]

My hospital does bedside charting. However, we are able to sit at the computers at the bedside and most nurses are still facing and communicating with the patient while charting. As a PCA, I absolutely love it. The nurses love it too. However, we still have plenty of nurses' stations with lots of computers as not all charting should be done at the bedside.

[One1, BSN, RN]

I envy you! I can't chart and talk at the same time. It used to drive me crazy when a rep would try to strike up conversation with me when I was trying to chart in the OR. I am simply not smart enough to chart with precision and concentrate on what the rep was trying to say. I finally had to just square my shoulders, tell the rep to go away and concentrate on my charting. I felt bad (because I could have been a bit more tactful), but I chart as if I am being deposed in court, and that requires every little brain cell that I have!

It is nice to know that bedside charting is working for you. Can you please hold a class for those of us who need pointers?!? :)

You do what you have to do. I can't get involved into idle chat either while charting but it works well to talk about patient pertinent information with the patient while I am charting it. I also love having the computer available for quick documentation of the meds I am giving at the time, throw a quick set of vital signs in, a note about the patient condition, and then be off to my next patient. This is much quicker for me since I am already in the room than to stop by the nursing station to chart what I just did. I have always worked with computers though (including my previous life) and am very comfortable with computer charting. Give me a paperchart and you will hear me growl as I contemplate making a paper airplane out of it..

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

I do all my charting while the patient is in the exam room. I know they don't like it, but that is the way it is. It has to be done during the patient visit, or at the end of the day. I'm not staying late.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

I am but a "lowly" student, but I've had recent experiences with both bedside charting and paper charting. I have to say that I prefer bedside charting via computer as long as you have other computer terminals available to use for more in-depth charting later. I find it absolutely great that I can do my assessments, vitals, med pass stuff, etc, right there and if I need to add more detail later, I most certainly can. One other thing I do like about computer charting in general is that lab work and reports can be reviewed quickly, easily, and right at the bedside if necessary, though I prefer to review that stuff before I enter the room.

So far, I have not had any complaints about me doing at least some of my charting at the bedside. If anything, the patients and families seem to think it's a good thing that I'm there for more than a few minutes doing assessment activities and leaving the room quickly. Of course I always make sure that they know that I'm doing charting instead of surfing the internet right away. They also can "kind of" see that the screen looks vastly different from anything like a forum or facebook or whatever else... if I have the screen angled right.

Given a choice between computerized charting only at a nursing station or having workstations at the bedside to use and at a nursing station, I would much prefer the latter, if only because I get stuff done right now instead of having to remember it later or have to convert written notes to the computer chart all the while remembering which info belongs to which patient.

For the nurse that doesn't have much familiarity with a computer or really knows how to type well, I can totally see that bedside computerized charting would be very uncomfortable to even think about switching over to, after doing paper-based charting. I personally see more issues with error possibilities using paper charts and med admin records than a computer system. A couple months ago I almost inadvertently had a med error (that I caught) because the paper MAR hadn't been signed off that a med had just been given and the med wasn't in the Pyxis so the Pyxis wouldn't have picked that up. The only reason it'd been picked up is that I asked if that med had been given already, because I knew it wasn't in the Pyxis.

Computer charting does have it's limitations though... and some of those can be a real pain... and I'm not all that familiar with computer charting beyond what I have used so far, but I do see some of it's limitations. Given time, I think bedside computer charting will become a tolerable irritation for most, a boon for some, a boat-anchor for others.

[RockinChick66]

We do charting at the bedside (computers mounted to the wall, but we can move them around to face whichever direction we want). We have no chairs, so we never sit down in our 8.5 shift (lunch excepted). You get used to it. The first two weeks I worked there, I would have excruciating back pain starting around mid-shift as my back muscles were not used to having to hold myself up for that long at a time. Just like any muscles, however, they become stronger with use.

Now my feet are a different story...

we do 12 hour shifts and most times get a very minimal lunch.

[~PedsRN~, BSN, RN]

I can't imagine having to do all of my charting bedside!

We have computers at the bedside - which I use for medication administration and I also chart my admission history on the computer (in real time - I ask the question, chart the answer) and med recs. Other than that, I do not use the bedside computer.

[RockinChick66]

I can't imagine having to do all of my charting bedside!

We have computers at the bedside - which I use for medication administration and I also chart my admission history on the computer (in real time - I ask the question, chart the answer) and med recs. Other than that, I do not use the bedside computer.

I don't mind doing some bedside charting. I want management to give us that option. For example, I would like to be able to chart my I & Os on the desktop, not in the patients room distracted by visitors and increasing my chance for error. I'm so dissatisfied with management these days as they don't walk in our shoes, and I don't think they have a clue as to what we go through! We'll see how it goes, I'm willing to give it a try. I'll let you know how it goes.