Bedside Rounding

We do this and I love it. At first we were all a little opposed but now I cant imagine not doing it. Obviously there are situations where we step out of the room but it gives us an opprotunity to get a quick head to toe glimpse of pt status, etc. before the prior nurse leaves. And it has helped with pt satisfaction tremendously . Not to mention eliminate me walking in finding issues for ie. bad iv sites, etc.

After thinking about it, and being opposed with it, THAT'S A GREAT IDEA ... too bad I work on a 40-bed unit, so this feat would be exceptionally daunting (it doesn't always happen, but there's rare occasions where we have to give report to 4 different people - 1 for each patient!)

This is how I do report.

We are required to have the oncoming nurse check our IV infusions and PCA's at handoff.

That is how we are supposed to be doing it. Except we have to do the whole thing in the room which is hard trying to look through the chart and find what we need, signing it, writing in it. etc ........but of course our charge nurse says its possible if we put more effort into it. -_-

We are required to do it. Yes, it takes a lot of effort, but I'm glad we do. Our patients can sometimes not always be so stable, (even though they're supposedly admitted because they're stable). I have not rounded for 2 hrs and found patients with no O2 sats, turning blue, ice cold, on the floor, etc. I think it's important to do. I will round even more frequently on folks with lots of issues. If I know a person is ok and may even have a sitter at the bedside, I'll fudge -- but mostly, I really am in the rooms every hour.

Do I get done with my shift on time? No -- but my patients stay safer. Our charge nurses also skulk around after us and make sure we're rounding. They're also always sniffing around in our charts. It makes me feel as if I'm constantly being watched. But that's another story.