Our facility is getting ready to break ground this summer for a brand new hospital. The one we have now has been around since Moses disembarked off the ark.... Anyway, administration has been going around asking nursing what needs we have and such...our nurse manager has decided that in the new hospital we will do bedside charting. Also she wants a cabinet in each pt's room (which all will be private :)) for the pt's meds. She says that she had this system at another facility and we need to get this at our new facility. The way she explains it that there will be a cabinet in each room that will contain the nurses' notes, MARS, and the patient's meds. The cabinet will be locked and each nurse will have a key to unlock the cabinet. Our manager thinks this system is the best thing since the round wheel and sliced bread. She said it actually easier to chart at the patient's bedside and to have all the meds there and not have to run to the nurses' station for our meds. Of course, the floor staff is kicking like a mule on this idea...we just don't see how this can work. Anyone out there on the boards have a system similar to what I am trying to describe? If so, can you tell me the advantages and disadvantages of such a set-up like bedside charting? Not one of our staff nurses wants this system, but the management is basically cramming it down our throats...
One of the major disadvantages I see with the bedside charting is when the heck I am going to have a few moments to put my feet up? Not in the patients' rooms. We will supposedly have a pull down shelf to put the chart on in the room to chart. At least now when I chart I can usually get off my feet for 5 or 10 minutes at a time (I do 12's). When I mentioned this little fact to my manager her reply was "Well, it isn't a sit down job anyway."
Plus at medpass time, I find it hard enough now to concentrate on the MARS and I am not even in the room, I can't imagine trying to check meds and listen to family members and/or pts while pulling up 10 or 15 meds that some patients have in the morning. Plus when I have to have drugs double checked with a nurse such as insulin, heparin, and so on. I will have to look for another nurse who will probably be in a room....but all this is falling on deaf ears....
I would like to hear from nurses who have worked with a system like this or a situation similar. Our staff just has a ton of doubts that this will fly but our manager is bound and determined this is what is best for us.....(though she works the floor once in a great while) this is what she WANTS. Tell me about the pros and cons...
Anyway, administration has been going around asking nursing what needs we have and such...our nurse manager has decided that in the new hospital we will do bedside charting. Also she wants a cabinet in each pt's room (which all will be private :)) for the pt's meds. She says that she had this system at another facility and we need to get this at our new facility. The way she explains it that there will be a cabinet in each room that will contain the nurses' notes, MARS, and the patient's meds. The cabinet will be locked and each nurse will have a key to unlock the cabinet. Our manager thinks this system is the best thing since the round wheel and sliced bread. She said it actually easier to chart at the patient's bedside and to have all the meds there and not have to run to the nurses' station for our meds. Of course, the floor staff is kicking like a mule on this idea...we just don't see how this can work. Anyone out there on the boards have a system similar to what I am trying to describe? If so, can you tell me the advantages and disadvantages of such a set-up like bedside charting? Not one of our staff nurses wants this system, but the management is basically cramming it down our throats...