Bedside Report...

Where I am a patient I have only experienced bedside nursing once. It was when I was having my endoscopy a few months ago.

I kinda liked it because I knew the info I wanted said was said along with what is important.

I liked being able to hear things like:

Watch her IV it took me 20 mins to get it.

They said everything in terms that I was able to understand.

I had been freaking out a bit and hearing all this made me feel better. I knew the people who were going to be there knew about me, and I felt comfortable they were going to take good care of me.

When this first started at my hospital, we were giving each other the basics of face to face report at the desk and then going into the room to introduce the oncoming nurse to the patient and discuss any issues the patient wanted to discuss, look at the wound, etc. But now the nurse manager has the charge nurses writing down and reporting to her which nurses are at the desk giving any report to one another and threatening disciplinary action. And of course we are not supposed to talk about patients in the hall outside the room either. So this forces us to talk over sleeping patients and not be able to relay information about behavioral issues unless we want to literally hide while doing it. And it does make report take a lot longer. Personally, I think it's just a matter of time before angry patients start complaining about their personal issues being discussed over them and in a place where roommates and visitors can hear.