Bedside Report - As The Shift Changes....(FINAL) (DVD)

Educational/Training video (Final version) for health care workers at the UCSD Medical Center, La Jolla, CA

Effective communication is particularly important in the transfer of patient care from one nurse to another during shift changes.

The purpose of these briefings are to keep members of clinical unit informed, anticipate needs, and make appropriate plans.

Conducting nurse-to-nurse shift report at the bedside, in the presence of the patient puts the patient central to all care activity information.

It allows the outgoing nurse to introduce the incoming nurse to the patient, thus creating an explicit transfer of responsibility. It provides the incoming nurse the opportunity to actively ask questions and visually inspect the patient, while checking identification bands and treatment modalities (for example, intravenous fluids) with the outgoing nurse.

Bedside reports also provide the opportunity to reassess the patient's plan of care and goals from the prior period and update the goals as needed.