Bedside shift report

Some issues don't get discussed during bedside report, and we will discuss them either before or after going in. No biggie. We have plenty of those patients here, too, especially since we have incarcerated patients and are a high risk facility, so lots of drug babies and psych or social work issues.

We started doing bedside report several months ago, but it usually ends up being more of a "meet-and-greet" than an actual report. Either there is a room full of visitors (and even if the patient says she's OK with you talking in front of them, I'm sure she doesn't really want you talking about her hemorrhoids, her psych history, her Valtrex prescription, or her baby's positive UDS in front of them!), or the patient is finally getting some sleep. We usually do the main report before we go in the room, and just do a quickie revamp of any major issues (as long as they're not potentially embarrassing to the patient in front of visitors) and what/when times of any medications. We ask the patient if there's anything she'd like to include, any questions, or anything she'd like the oncoming shift to know. That's not really the way bedside report was intended to be, but that seems to be what it has become for us. Some of the patients do comment that they like it - it makes them feel more involved in their care - but most don't seem to care one way or the other. I do like the introduction component of it - I feel like it smooths the transition between shifts better for the patient.

We do bedside report and save the sensitive stuff(positive for chlamydia, bipolar,cocaine) for outside the door if someone is in the room.

As a L&D patient, bedside report is the only reason I found out I had a placental abruption, so for me it was very informative.

As a nurse, I did bedside report in 2 of the hospitals I worked at. At the first we did a full report at bedside except for sensitive information (i.e. psych/behavioral issues) that we did at the desk. Patients would sometimes ask questions about what we were saying, and overall it was beneficial in that the patient and staff were all on the same page for plan of care. At the second hospital it was only a meet-and-greet which was at least nice for the oncoming shift to lay eyes on the patient, especially for those sicker patients to ensure that what they were seeing when they came on shift was not some big change from the previous shift.