Kathee Laffoon, RNC, PHN, MSN/Ed, is Program Manager and Clinical Coordinator of University of Phoenix’s LPN-to-BSN program at its Modesto, Calif., campus. Prior to joining University of Phoenix’s faculty, Laffoon spent 27 years as a labor and delivery nurse at Modesto’s Memorial Medical Center, where she saw first-hand how improvements in patient charting technologies can directly impact patient care.

“Bedside charting allows [hospital] units such as Obstetrics or the ICU to integrate the medical record in ways that we cannot do with traditional paper systems,” says Laffoon. “This way we don’t have to carry around a paper chart with us at all times, then enter information into that chart sometimes hours later, when nurses are often exhausted and their memories aren’t clear. When patient documentation can be done in real time at the bedside, the patient gets more bedside time with the nurse because that nurse doesn’t have to sit at the nurses’ station and chart for hours.”

Laffoon first became interested in bedside charting technologies after being a named defendant in a malpractice lawsuit filed against Modesto’s Memorial Medical Center. “In nursing, we have an old saying: ‘If it wasn’t charted, it wasn’t done,’ ” says Laffoon. “This really hit home after I was named in a lawsuit at my hospital. We eventually won the lawsuit, but being deposed and testifying about everything I charted left a big impression on me.”

As a direct result of this lawsuit, Laffoon’s employer appointed her to a special committee to evaluate electronic patient charting systems. Serving on that committee and helping her employer select an automated system that eventually led to real-time bedside charting set Laffoon on a new career path. Laffoon has gone on to help develop electronic flowsheets for implementing automated patient charting systems that were adopted throughout the Sutter Health system. Having done additional charting system development work in both her day-to-day career and as part of her MSN/Ed thesis project, Laffoon is now an expert in this emergent area.

Ronnie Sheridan, RN, is Program Manager and Clinical Coordinator at University of Phoenix’s Hohokam Phoenix Campus College of Nursing. Like Laffoon, Sheridan has real-world experience in implementing bedside charting systems that she is now sharing with University of Phoenix students.

“I worked for Banner Health for four years and used the CITRIX^® Cerner Millennium system for electronic documentation on patients,” says Sheridan. “I used this system to look up a variety of things within the patient chart. I eventually worked for the eICU for Banner Systems which allows for physicians and nurses to monitor patients remotely via the VISICU^® system.”

Sheridan acknowledges that bedside charting is still in its infancy, but believes it offers great potential rewards.

“I had never seen bedside charting before working for Banner Health,” she says. “But I saw firsthand the difference it made in reducing medical errors and improving patient safety.”

What Does Bedside Charting Mean for Nursing Careers?

While bedside charting technologies may be relatively uncommon now, many experts believe they likely will be standard practice in five to ten years. How should nurses and nursing students prepare for this new reality?

Ronnie Sheridan offers this advice: “Choose a nursing program that incorporates technology into its instruction and allows access to different computer charting systems.”That way upon graduation you are already competent at doing bedside charting.” (University of Phoenix’s LPN-to-BSN program currently offers this capability at its Phoenix Hohokam campus and at its Modesto campus).

Laffoon agrees. “Expose yourself to a wide variety of charting systems,” she says. “Some hospitals still only have paper charting and that’s okay. But be prepared for other types of charting systems, such as computerized documentation, standalone systems for doctors’ offices, and specialty systems for labor and delivery, the ICU, or the operating room. Improve your keyboarding and use of technology, and don’t be afraid to try new things.”

It’s a brave new world for healthcare information technology, and in many ways, bedside charting is leading the charge.

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