Bedside Report

[Mr. Murse]

I'm wondering if anyone else thinks the incessant push by unit managers to do a "bedside report" is ridiculous (I assume the facilities I work at are not the only ones doing it).

Don't get me wrong, I fully support the idea that both the nurses coming and going should visit each patient together before one leaves, but it's the push to actually do the full report at bedside that's just a good intention gone wrong. On many floors and ICUs the manager intentionally makes a round during shift change to nag and enforce this petty and unnecessary policy.

I understand the intended purpose, I really do, but inevitably bedside reports become unnecessarily long as the patient and family want to chime in about their great uncle who had really bad hemorrhoids or their friend whose cat just had kittens. Even if you manage to keep it on track, bedside report is a waste of everyone's time in my opinion.

Just let the nurses report in the hall or at the desk, then round through every room to visualize the patients, then move on with the day.

I know I'm venting, but surely I'm not the only one annoyed by this?

[Bluepen]

Our unit started enforcing bedside report after a patient was found dead during a Dayshift nurse's assessment. Maybe they died during nightshift but who knows. If she had done bedside report then she would have had the nightshift nurse stay and help her. That Dayshift nurse was always against bedside report but after that day she never complained. So I just see bedside report as checking if my patient is alive.