switching to bedside report

jjensen · Mar 10, 2009

We give person to person report outside of each patient's room and somedays it takes forever, but I do prefer it to taped report where you listen for half an hour on all your patients and still have to go and get updates... This way, I can ask all my questions right away...

I do like it when I get report from the same RN and then I give her report in the AM after my shift with the same patients. Doesn't happen much, but it sure is nice when that happens...

RNperdiem, RN · Mar 10, 2009

I work ICU so giving report on 1 or 2 patients is simpler.

I'm not sure how it would work on floors with high ratios.

I first give the oral report at the nursing station(mention the sensitive information there), and then do a show and tell at the bedside where we look at IV pumps together, check the PCA settings and have a quick hello if the patient is conscious.

I don't think bedside report means you need to give the entire report in the patient's room.

WSU_Ally_RN, BSN, RN · Mar 10, 2009

I totally agree with RNperdiem... I am also in the ICU, and are only giving report on 1 or 2 pts. When our facility started doing this, our management was super gung ho with ALL of the report being inside the room. They have kind of relaxed on this issue, realizing we can't give report with out a computer, so most of us start out around the nurses station at a computer, then end up out side and inside the room so we can go over drips, lines, monitors, etc, etc, etc...

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Mar 10, 2009

I've done this before and have to admit it did take longer. I was doing a 6-2 shift so my oncoming report was pretty easy but offgoing at 2pm took forever because of the changing shift. I had roughly 10-12 patients and would sometimes have to give report to two nurses, sometimes three.

What took the time was if even if you tried to hover outside the room and whisper the report the patients decided they needed something because they could see you (not blaming them of course, they didn't know we were doing report) Probably just thought they saw two nurses in the hallway with nothing to do.

BGgirl · Mar 10, 2009

We call ours bedside handoff and we basically still do a written/verbal report at the nurses station and then both the oncoming and outgoing nurse go to the pts room and introduce the new nurse, and make sure the room isn't a wreck or your pt isn't. It doesn't take that long to do but we've only been doing it about a month.

chenoaspirit, ASN, RN · Mar 10, 2009

We are switching to bedside report also, not sure when though. One good thing about it is that the previous nurse will be less likely to "forget to do something" or leave a mess in the room if they know you will be in there with them to receive report and see it while they are still there. Ive gone into rooms and the patient be soaked from head to toe in urine, the previous nurse was gone by the time I found it. That type of thing ticks me off.

invisigoth · Mar 10, 2009

I hate it from a patient POV. I dropped everything during nursing school to be with my mother for her exploratory surgery for cancer. Well her belly was full of it. The one day we were laughing and talking and the two nurses were doing report right outside the room and said my mother's diagnosis of cancer out loud for everyone (including my mother) to hear. It was pretty depressing If nurses are going to be doing bedside reporting they should be careful of who is around them.

justjRN · Mar 11, 2009

thank you all for your input!

Batman24 · Mar 11, 2009

They tried it on my floor before I was hired and did away with it fairly quickly. It was taking forever and OT went up. Bye bedside reporting.

lpnstudentin2010, LPN · Mar 11, 2009

**********A VIEW FROM A PATIENT**********

I have only ever had bed side report done once with me being the patient. It was when I was having an endoscopy, the 3 procedure room nurses were recieving report from the pre-procedure nurse.

I really liked it. I was aware of what was happening, and it made me feel good that she warned them of certian things e.g. "It took me forever to get that IV. If anything happens to it you are going to need to go in her foot and she is needle phobic so gard that IV with your life".

The bedside nursing also opened the door to the fact that, the nurses that were going to be in the procedure room with me, asked me questions of things that were unclear. I liked that. They were not just there talking about me, but included me in it. If they did not fully understand something in the history they asked for a little backround info.

However, I could see, if they did not include me like that, it being very akward for the patient. To have these (on the ward it would be 2) people just standing over them talking about them. Therefore I think if bedside reporting is going to happen it would be important to inculde the patient in delivery of information.

imaRN08 · Aug 5, 2009

we have been doing bedside report for about 3-4 months now. Our facility says "It's a JCAHO requirement, you HAVE to do it..." Is it even a requirement? I dont think so..? we are forced to leave the nurses station every shift or we are written up; and yes, even on noc shift bc our boss has "snitches" who reports to her who is not doing bedside report!! We end up waking our pt's up in the AM (most of the time after they have JUST fallen asleep bc they've been up all noc), disrupting pt's who have visitors, confuse already confused pts, etc. its a huge headache! we arent allowed to talk in the hallway or at the nurses station if someone is sleeping, the pt isnt appropriate to do report in front of them, or if they are dying and the room is FULL of people bc the management thinks we are "making up excuses" and will write us up. the pt's feel like they are on display, they look uncomfortable and confused by us talking in front of them, they become anxious or worried bc they dont understand anything you are saying, and its awkward. I cant tell you how many times I have stated what they are on tele (like SR with PVCs) and the pt about jumps up out of bed and says "is that bad? am I gunna die?!" when most of them dont even know that the box that they are wearing to "watch their hearts" is even called tele. Then its the typical disruptions "take me to the BR, I'm ready for my shower NOW, or, explain everything thats happened to me again so I can tell my brothers uncle who I have on the phone everything and then answer his questions" etc. we never get out on time (for several reasons), and usually we waste so much time looking for each nurse to report off too. On a typical noc, I have 5-6, usually 6, and i typically have to give report to atleast 4 different nurses. I think its a good idea to see your pt and introduce the next nurse to the pt, check their lines, foley, whatever before you take care of them all shift, but I think the bulk of the report should be at the nurses station or whatever and not at the bedside. sorry for the rant/negativity, but its a real headache to do bedside report on a typical nursing floor! :banghead: