Bedside charts: how to introduce change.

Abstract

This article describes the efforts of an orthopaedic nursing team to scrutinize and reform the charts used at bedside. A review of the process revealed a ritualistic system that was ill-defined and centered around nurses' work patterns. A new chart was designed incorporating features of the old, and adding new information that was considered useful. The author reports that staff preferred the new design and argues that nurses can initiate change at ward level.