Hospitals are altering the way nurses change shifts — and it's for the better, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Here are six things to know about the change.
1. Traditionally, nurses going off duty typically talk with the nurse coming on for the next shift in a hallway or at the nursing station, giving information on their patients' status and needs, according to the report. Other times nurses communicate for the next shift via a written report.
2. Now, however, hospitals are doing bedside shift reports, with both nurses meeting in front of the patient during the shift change.
3. The change is meant to reduce the chance of errors and oversights in the transfer of information.
4. According to The Wall Street Journal, studies have found bedside shift reports improve communication between nurses, as well as nurses' communication with patients and their families. Studies show bedside shift reports also help lessen the number of patient falls and catch safety issues, such as an incompatible blood transfusion and dangerous air bubbles that form in arteries, the report notes. "Conducting nurse change-of-shift report at the bedside with the patient and family should be viewed as a core safety strategy in hospitals today," Beverley Johnson, CEO of the Bethesda, Md.-based Institute for Patient-and-Family-Centered Care, which offers webinars for hospitals on adopting bedside shift reporting, told The Wall Street Journal, "It is a very tangible way to ensure that complete and accurate information is shared and there is mutual understanding of the care plan and other priorities."
5. Still, there has been some resistance to bedside reporting from nursing units. There are concerns bedside reporting could eat up too much time and put nurses in danger of violating patient confidentiality, according to the report. However, the report notes, patient advocacy groups claim privacy rules should not be an issue if patients are told conversations may be overheard and asked about issues they want to remain private.
6. Hospitals that have adopted bedside reporting include Seattle-based University of Washington Medical Center, which assembled a patient and family advisory council for assistance in developing more inclusive policies including bedside nursing shift reports, and The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, which started training nurses in bedside shift reporting two years ago, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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