Patient Neglect May Be Caused By Strict Documentation Standards For Nurses

Nurses may be caring too much about documentation

Nurses are the epitome of care in the hospitals. They are in charge of patient care, keeping the patients safe, watching them, reporting any progress to the doctors, and most importantly, documentation of patient care.

Nurses have always been taught the importance of documentation of patient care. It is the most crucial aspect of being a nurse at the hospital. From the time the nurse enters the workstation, he or she is expected to perform her charting duties until the end of the shift.

Due to the increasing number of patients coupled with the increasing workload of nurses today, it poses the query whether nurses give adequate care to the patients, or do they take more time charting instead.

Technological advances are hitting major hospitals in the US, where nurses’ charting are, more or less,  done electronically. One nurse tells of the numerous numbers of drop down menus as guides to patient care. These menus are requirements of care from the institution, healthcare organizations, and health insurance. According to the nurse, it appears that the electronic chart is a huge database of checklists of what to watch out for in their patients.

Due to this huge database of patient information, the nurse must take time to fill them out in every shift, taking a huge amount of his or her time. Knowing this, the nurse must carefully consider if he or she is really caring for the patient’s needs, or maybe more care is being taken on the patient’s chart.