Bedside Reporting: Issues and Strategies for Nurses

Bedside Reporting
Explanation of the issue
The issues that are being faced by the nurses during the bedside reporting are as follows:
 Lack of appropriate communication between patient and nurses can result in an adverse situation.
 The nurses face problems in collecting appropriate information in order to provide quality care to the patients.
 The nurses are not able to involve the patient and his or her family, what to discuss with the patient, how to protect the privacy of the patient and
how to share the information.
 Sometimes, the nurses are not able to manage the patient and their families if they are not appropriate informed or do not able to understand the
professional language.
 The patients are not able to participate in the reporting process because of fatigue or tiredness, language barriers, concentrating more on the
reporting paper and difficulties in asking questions.
 Lack of confidence, the perception and fear of accountability leads to more work pressure for the nurses (McAllen, Stephens, Biearman, Kerr &
Whiteman, 2018).
 The nurses face barriers due to the long duration time of reporting and confidentiality.
 The communication gaps result in errors in the medical process which imposes a significant impact on the health of the patient.
 Language barriers are considered to be one of the major issues that are being faced by the nurses during the bedside reporting.
 The nurses are not able to collect necessary information because the patient does not speak in the same language.
 The patient care requires to compete and thorough reporting of conditions, medications, follow up and procedures.
 The use of medical terms also creates barriers for the patient to understand the process.
 Appropriate documentation of the information is considered to be very much important in order to ensure quality care provided to the patients.
 The lack of appropriate involvement of the family members creates a huge barrier in providing adequate care.
 The lack of adequate knowledge and skills creates a huge problem for the nurses to carry out the bedside reporting in an appropriate manner.
 The lack of adequate information can lead to a lack of quality care for the patients.
 If the interpreter was not able to understand what had been informed to him then the nurse should communicate with him or her if any
clarification is needed or not.
 The interpreter should not be interpreted or disturbed when the translation process is carried out with the patient.
 The needs of the patient need to be taken into account in order to ensure the quality of care provided to him or her.
Strategy to address the issue
The strategy that should be adopted by the nurses to over the language barrier during the bedside reporting process is as
follows:
 The evidence-based strategies should be adopted by the nurses which will direct how to carry out the bedside
reporting in an appropriate manner.
 The language barrier can be overcome by taking help of the interpreter resources that can assist to translate the
language of the patient.
 The nurse should make sure that an appropriate interpret technique is being adopted in order to avoid any kind of
issues.
 The nurses can employ an interpreter and specify them the language in which they have to communicate and interpret
it for gathering the information.
 The nurse should provide a brief idea of the work to the interpreter and also the history of the patient (Carnevale,
2012).
 The nurses can also take the help of the staff members who speak the same language as per the patient because it will
assist to decrease the cost of employing an interpreter.
 The medical terms need to be understood by the patient which is the responsibility of the interpreter to ensure an
effective communication process.
 The nurses should use the interpreters at the time of admission, at discharge and during teaching the patient.
 The nurses can also develop universal symbols for providing direction to the patients.
 Effective training needs to be carried out for the nurses in order to enhance their knowledge and skills for ensuring
smooth functioning of the bedside reporting.
 Language materials can also be used by the nurse to establish communication with the patient.
 If the patient has a low concentrating level in understanding things then the interpreter should communicate on the
basis of the situation.