Bedside Report

[Djadia]

I work @ a rural community hospital approx 15-20 beds. We recently implemented Bedside report on our med/surg unit & have encountered a few obstacles along the way & am hoping that someone could give me a few suggestions. 1). We have several same-day surgery patients that stay overnight & discharge in the AM. By the time the patients finally receive pain relief & just fall asleep - Night shift come in & we do bedside report. Patients get angry when we wake them up but I also understand that a fresh surgical requires close monitoring ie: dressing, IV's etc. When we do bedside report, it's not until 1/2 later that the oncoming shift then does their assessment & vitals. How are other hospitals handling night shift report. 2). In regards to staffing, we attempt to pair up the RN's with the same TC/CNA's so bedside report can be done together; however this is not always possible.

In addition, my shift starts @ 3pm and one of our TC's come in from 4p-12 to assist in the "overlapping" of pm & night shift. We then need to give her report & not to mention, the beginning of the shift is the busiest & we don't always have time to stop to give report. I'd be interested in hearing how other's handle this issue. The may seem minor - but it only take few coworkers to make it a major issue.

[liveyourlife747]

We ask Pts on admission if they want to be woken for bedside report. If they say no we both peek in the room to check on the pt and step out into the sink area where we can quietly do report but still be in the room. (we have private rooms).

Im not understanding you questions about the aides though? Our aides report to aides, nursing doesn't stop to report to aides but we are expected to keep our aides up to date on the things we need done for certain Pts

[liveyourlife747]

Oh and at our facility aides do not do bedside report. It is just the nursing staff that does this.

[Nurse Kyles, BSN, RN]

On night shift we usually do the report quietly by the door if the patient is sleeping. We do go in to check all tubes, wounds, lines,drips, dressings though.

Our PCTs report to each other, and they do not do it at bedside. Also our PCTs start 45 minutes earlier than the nurses, so that the vitals are done by the beginning of the RN's shift. THe nurses keep the PCTs up to date about which patients have blood sugars, more frequent vitals etc.