centralized vs decentralized nursing stations (ie pods)

[anon456, BSN, RN]

Just wondering what your experiences and preferences are-- in nursing school I trained at two hospitals that had central nursing stations at the centers of pods. I kinda liked it. It was easy to find other nurses when they were needed (such as to waste meds or get help turning a patient), and it was nice that the nurses who were at the nurse station could share in watching patients.

Now I'm in a hospital where the floors are long and narrow with intermittent nursing desks. There are also desks between two patient rooms and windows that allow nurses to peek in at the patients when sitting at the desk. This can be very handy to watch a high needs patient while charting and would be appropriate for ICU settings. I just find it a lot more isolating to the nurses, and often I can't see where they are "hiding" when the are seated and charting, and otherwise they are in patient rooms. So while we are all still watching all the patients and it's not a safety issue, I just don't like it as much.

I think a lot of the newer hospitals are going to this new design. Is there some advantage to it over the old pod style? Do you like or dislike one over the other?