Benefits of Bedside Nursing

According to surveys of patient satisfaction, most patients recurrently complained about nurses spending less time with them and failing to educate them about their conditions. With the commonness and widespread prevalence of patient deaths and several deterioration incidences, general nursing care on its own is inefficient in curbing this menace as it keeps on burdening the society at large. Thus, a viable solution is necessary, and bedside nursing is a vital way to increase patient understanding of health care, reduce patient and family apprehension and increase the liability of nurses while reducing the potential for mistakes when dealing with patients of any kind. Handling a patient is easier when there is a channel through which they are made aware of their condition thus there is the utter need for change from the customary nursing to bedside nursing since although the latter may be more costly, it is worth every penny to save and value humankind. During shift changes, the feeling of abandonment often affects a majority of patients, and it can slow down their recuperation process due to anxiety and depression. With bedside nursing, this particular notion is done away with because shift changes are uncommon and one specific nurse is assigned to take care of a particular patient during the treatment period.

Direct and standard patient care is every patient’s desire and despite bedside nursing being one of the most elementary forms of nursing, it stands out as one of the most vital forms too. Nurses always make sure that the basic needs of a patient are met so that the latter can recuperate as fast as possible and entirely without further worsening unless the patient’s condition worsens inevitably. Contrary to the absence of bedside nursing, patients who have bedside nurses assigned to them have their emotional needs met, and they experience well-deserved comfort and care (Sand-Jecklin & Sherman, 2014). The overall responsibilities that a bedside nurse is tasked with entail duties which give immediate attention to the particular patient that a nurse is looking after since these nurses have vast hands-on experience in handling patients. These duties have a positive outcome for the patients and help improve patient safety and outcome as compared to the lack of bedside nursing. The benefits are broadly discussed in this write-up.

Foremost, nurses are tasked with evaluation of the general health condition of a patient to identify any irregularity in the recuperation pattern and address it promptly while also identifying their nursing needs and watching out for any vital signs. Additionally, bedside nurses help patients with movement and maintaining good alignment of the body and also observing keenly any symptoms that a patient may be having and handling it early enough (Jeffs et al, 2014). These nurses prepare patients appropriately for any diagnostic and therapeutic procedures hence ensuring no important detail is omitted during the procedures. Patients under bedside nursing have the advantage of having nurses as interpreters of information as they relay information about the patient’s progress to their families to enhance therapy and rehabilitation successfully. The nurses moreover, act as a link or a connection between the patient and other hospital staff other than helping physicians with remedial and diagnostic operations (Lu et al, 2014). In most cases, the nurses study and respond to emotional and spiritual needs of their patients at the ideal time then commence corrective action when required and note down the information into the chart of a specific patient for later reference.

Bedside nursing is a high recommendation in the clinical area and with the advancement of healthcare should be incorporated when taking care of patients, regardless of the type of illness. Teamwork is built on the entire staff when nurses know their specific roles and which patients they are supposed to look after. With efficient cooperation and delegation of duties, proper and healthy relationships are built, and this serves to prevent any potential harm to patients. Bedside reporting which involves typically monitoring and carefully assessing the health status of a patient is an essential feature as it provides perfect conditions and directives on how to curb any arising symptoms in time before they worsen. The health practitioner also attends to each patient accordingly, following the report given by the bedside nurse. In addition to that, patients who have bedside nurses tend to recuperate faster than their counterparts who don’t. The assurance of having a support system at your disposal in the event of an emergency gives a sense of emotional satisfaction, and the patient is unlikely to feel abandoned or neglected. Also, with the involvement of patients in their healthcare regime, health practitioners have an easy time administering therapy as the patient is fully aware of the condition he/she is suffering from and is more aware of the most suitable treatment. For instance, when a diabetic patient is educated by the bedside nurse about the condition, the patient will readily adhere to the laid-down guidelines such as foods to eat and at what times or specific injections and the purposes. Therefore, bedside nursing is highly efficient and should be a part of any regular health care regime to bring forth a change in the clinic setting.

References

Jeffs, L., Beswick, S., Acott, A., Simpson, E., Cardoso, R., Campbell, H., & Irwin, T. (2014). Patients’ views on bedside nursing handover: creating a space to connect. Journal of nursing care quality, 29(2), 149-154.

Lu, S., Kerr, D., & McKinlay, L. (2014). Bedside nursing handover: Patients’ opinions. International journal of nursing practice, 20(5), 451-459.

Sand‐Jecklin, K., & Sherman, J. (2014). A quantitative assessment of patient and nurse outcomes of bedside nursing report implementation. Journal of clinical nursing, 23(19-20), 2854-2863.