bedside reporting

SweetOldWorld, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2009

the hospital i work for recently started bedside reporting, i'm not a big fan of it, and i was just wondering if any other hospitals out there have started to doing bedside reporting at shift change...if so what are your thoughts on it? good or bad? if not what do u think about it possibly being instituted at hospitals?

I really like it. You see all of your patients right at the beginning of the shift, while the other nurse is still there to correct any omissions or problems. Often, the off-going nurse will help me turn a patient to get a good look at a dressing. It's easier to ask questions (and get better answers) right there in the room while you are looking at the patient. Best of all, the patients are included in the report, and they are better informed about their condition and treatment plan. It took a while to get used to, but now I prefer it.

smurfy · Feb 18, 2009

It occurs where I work, however I am not a fan of it. I give my regular report at the nurses station and then I go into the room with the off going/on coming nurse. I do not give or recieve any report in the room other than checking drips, wounds, incisions, etc.. I feel that you can not give a good, accurate, and honest report in front of the patient and family.

phurlamu · Feb 18, 2009

i like bedside reporting because as sweetoldworld said, you see your pt's right in front of you and can connect the report with the pt. if u receive the report at the nurses station, how will you be able to remember which report was for which pt. unless you're familiar with the pt's.

LilyBlue · Feb 18, 2009

We have semi-private rooms, and I hate bedside reporting. It is a huge violation of privacy.

CABG patch kid, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2009

We do beside report; very few people actually give a full bedside report d/t privacy issues or obviously if the pt is sleeping, I think its rude to wake them since we already wake them up enough as it is on night shift! Most of the time we do report right outside the room, then go in together to meet the pt and get shown any pertinent thing (dressing, groin site post heart cath, etc). It is nice for the pt to see when one shift is leaving and the other coming on so they can make that connection. Also, sometimes the pt has questions that the previous shift will have a better answer for, little things like that. I like to get at least a visual of all my patients before getting tied up in one's room for 20 minutes while the others sit and wait for me to get going on vitals and assessments.

Overall, its a good idea in theory, but giving a full on report at bedside isn't realistic for a lot of patients. I hope you find a way to make it work for you!

flygirl43 · Feb 18, 2009

If my relief is on time....it's great. If they are 20 minutes late.....I'm going to want to kill them!!!!!!!!!!!!

firefox828 · Feb 18, 2009

1. agree with lilyblue... violation of privacy, and our floor has only 2 private rooms, the rest are 2-bed rooms.

2. can you imagine if i will give report to 3-4 nurses?

StrwbryblndRN · Feb 18, 2009

It has it upsides such as checking dressings and confirming drips. But that does not overide the privacy issue if you have dual occupancy rooms.

Also there are a good portion of confused pt's on the floor and I can see that being very agitating to the them to talk where they can hear you.

It could take alot of time to give part of the report in one place and another in the room.

I love the idea of introducing the oncoming nurse and checking drips but that is it. Nothing that would constitute "reporting off"

MatthewRN · Feb 18, 2009

We give report at the desk and then go into the room for a short bedside report that's really more just eyeballing drips and dressings and such.

WalkieTalkie, RN · Feb 18, 2009

I work in the ICU, and I could actually see how this would benefit everyone to take a quick look at the patient and check drips and what not. However, I don't think that the full report should be given at the bedside because there are a lot of things that are inappropriate to discuss with the patient/family right next to you (i.e. "This patient looks like crap and his lungs are full of rhonchi! I bet you're going to intubate him before midnight, but Dr. X doesn't seem to think there is a problem with his respiratory status! Make sure you keep an eye on him."). Or how about "This patient sundowns really bad. She's sweet as pie now, but watch out for later, she'll try to grab your stethescope and strangle you! That Zyprexa sure does wonders for her when this happens."

Yeah, I really wouldn't care to hear those things if I were a family member/patient. Also, I don't think that this idea is realistic for nurses on floors where their patient load is a lot higher. For goodness sakes, the poor nurses would be giving report for hours!

jjjoy, LPN · Feb 19, 2009

I like the idea of at least some degree of a bedside handoff.

I'd hope that places that had bedside reporting would allow nurses to use their judgement over what to discuss in front of patients and what to reserve for a private exchange or to let a patient sleep.

Just for the record, it's not a HIPAA violation if a roommate overhears private health information. If it's particularly sensitive information, then you can take extra measures to protect patient privacy, but HIPAA does allow for the incidental sharing of information in the normal course of caring for a patient. It's not meant to hinder efficient communication.