Need thoughtful opinion

[Goldenhare]

Not sure that this is an appropriate place to post this but

I work on a very small med surg floor in a very small hospital. We have LPN students in twice a week. The instructor used to work here, I'm told, years ago.

Recently, we were giving turnover at the nurses station. The patient rooms surround the nurses station. As report started, the instructor took it upon herself to close the doors on two rooms citing HIPPA. the nurse giving report stated that those rooms were both line of sight rooms, with one pt being a suicidal ideation pt and the other being a withdrawing ETOH/drug addict, and got up and reopened the door.

Next time I came to work, we were told that report was now on to be conducted in the staff break room with doors closed and only one unlicensed personal at the nurses station. I feel that this is a risk to my license, though I can understand the HIPPA concerns. ( I mentioned this when I first started here and was told not to worry about it. !!!!)

I would rather do walking rounds

Thoughts and ideas please. Thanks!

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

Giving report in vicinity of a room is not a HIPAA violation unless you are screaming report to one another. In the vast majority of units, report takes place at the nurse's station and a visitor/patient/etc can walk by and hear confidential information.

Some other units have "report rooms," where nurse to nurse report can be given in privacy. Going in here for report is really not a threat to your license. Suppose during your shift, all nurses are in pt rooms. Are you not going to go into a room yourself?

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I personally believe that not every nurse has a "need to know" what is going on with patients to whom he/she is not assigned. We do bedside rounds. Difficult at first but, using SBAR, we are now getting the hang of it.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

We do bedside reporting, if the patient has family or other visitors in the room we ask if it is okay to discuss his/her care in front of the visitors. If it is not okay we politely ask the visitors to step outside of the room.

We always have someone at the desk during report. It is usually the charge nurse and a PCA.