Hi Colleagues!
We started Bedside Report at my general acute teaching-hospital more than a year ago. Immediately I joined a group to tailor it for our psychiatric units because: the patient are typically only "bedside" at hs, some issues confidential about a patient is not appropriate to re-hash in front of the patient for the benefit of updating a newly assigned nurse, and confidentiality issues of peer patients in hearing range were all major concerns of mine. As a Nurse Scholar at Emory I am supposedly the expert in my field so I designed a tweak of the bedside report process.
They allowed me to redesign the universal Bedside Report sheet (just got official approval to use Psych Dept-wide). The sheet contains all the vital information. The process is to exchange off-going with the on-coming nurse in a mini-confer, go to patient wherever they are to be informed on change of nurse provider, ask the patient if any concerns, eyeball any physical issues (wounds, devices...) and set a brief goal for the day with the patient = <5 min. All nursing staff go to our report room for a huddle to compare notes for acuity, fairness of assignment and document on the huddle sheet overview acuity issues (high fall risks, 1:1's...) while the off-going shift watches the floor. The huddle ends before the previous shifts leaves and with a brief prayer (to myself as the charge nurse or with the group that wants it) for the safety & success of the day.