Help! Walking rounds??

[diablo]

We begin "walking rounds" tomorrow.

No type of preparation what so ever.

We also will still be taping report,so our head nurse will be informed.

Could someone tell me what the pros and cons of this type of report are.

How do you manage patient confidentiality in a semi-private room??

We usually give report to several nurses,how do you manage to make walking rounds this way??

BTW,this is to save us time!!

[diablo]

Sorry,wrong forum! I still will appreciate any help I can get...

[aus nurse]

Hi Diablo,

I feel for you being made to do walking rounds. Our dictator manager made us do this for about 12 months, despite us not liking it. We found there was NO confidentiality at all, especially in the shared rooms. We tried both in and out of the rooms but neither worked. Other patients, relatives and hotel staff all got an update too. We were constantly interrupted coz we looked to be just 5 nurses standing around talking!!! It made it much longer. I found only half the staff heard the report too coz the handover nurse tended to whisper so that not all the patients etc. got to hear too.

We finally just refused to do these anymore and have gone back to handover face to face. Why are they making you do 2 types ofreport and calling it saving time??? Management, they have no idea!!!!!!!!!! :(

[diablo]

Thanks for the input! I think our new D.o.n.means well,but I don't think it is the answer.This morning was our first time and it was chaos!I had 7 pts.and had to give report to 4 different nurses.Five of my pts were asleep,so naturaly,we had to wake them up!!!I also taped report @5am so the nurse manager would know what was going on with these pts.( She called in!!) We had student nurses today,so at least they listened to the tape.Multiply this by 4 nurses,it was a circus...

[live4today, RN]

Hi diablo! :)

Years ago, I worked in a university hospital that did walking rounds, and it worked well for the staff at that time. Of course, things weren't as chaotic in nursing then as they are today, so that could account for how well it was received 'back in the day'.

I would fill the nurse in on the patient she was receiving from me outside the patient's room in a "quiet tone", so no one else heard our conversation. Then, we would both go into the patient's room where I would inform the patient that I was going home now, and introduce her/him to their new nurse for the next shift. The only thing we talked about at that time was anything the patient had on his/her mind prior to my leaving to ensure the transfer from one nurse to the other went without incident or any unresolved issues with the "offgoing nurse", etc. I would then check the IV fluid hanging, the heplock, the IV site, the dressing, wound, etc..... whatever was particular with each patient that the "oncoming nurse" needed be alert to. By doing this, it relieved the "oncoming nurse" from having to walk into a patient's room for the first time of her/his shift and being immediately confronted with an empty IV bag, an IV site gone bad, a dressing that needed changing before she could get started with her rounds good, pain meds being requested at the beginning of a shift, etc. I always wanted to take care of all those matters in "due time", so the "oncoming nurse" wouldn't be immediately slammed with having to run around and do things that could have been safely managed before my going home.

These are just a few reasons why I prefer walking rounds. It depends on how the rounds are done that make them well received or not.

"I've learned that it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular." -- Andy Rooney

:kiss

[diablo]

Thanks for the advice!

[live4today, RN]

You're welcome! Anytime! :)

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

Howdy Yalll

from deep in the heart of texas

Well put Renee. I dont relly know how things work on floor nursing. I work in 44 bed Er. The nurses all get reports for their zones, The 2 charge nurses, or assistant nurses manager do a walking round themselves, aand this has proven to be very beneficial to the flow of pt care in the Er, maybe its the rapid turnover of pts in er or what. But this way the charge nurse get to walk together. and see whats going on. If there were owmissions by the offgoing nurse or things that needed higher prioritization it was easier to see what needed doing when it was visualized, rather than just reported. Made it easier to fend off pt complaints also. As far as all the nurses doing it together in a large Er it really isnt feasible, or doesnt seem to be.

keep it in the short grass yall

teeituptom