Do bedside whiteboards enhance communication in hospitals? An exploratory multimethod study of patient and nurse perspectives

Abstract

Objective: To understand patient and nurse views on usability, design, content, barriers and facilitators of hospital whiteboard utilisation in patient rooms.

Design: Multimethods study.

Setting: Adult medical-surgical units at a quaternary care academic centre.

Participants: Four hundred and thirty-eight adult patients admitted to inpatient units participated in bedside surveys. Two focus groups with a total of 13 nurses responsible for updating and maintaining the whiteboards were conducted.

Results: Most survey respondents were male (55%), ≥51 years of age (69%) and admitted to the hospital ≤4 times in the past 12 months (90%). Over 95% of patients found the whiteboard helpful and 92% read the information on the whiteboard frequently. Patients stated that nurses, not doctors, were the most frequent user of whiteboards (93% vs 9.4%, p<0.001, respectively). Patients indicated that the name of the team members (95%), current date (87%), upcoming tests/procedures (80%) and goals of care (63%) were most useful. While 60% of patients were aware that they could use the whiteboard for questions/comments for providers, those with ≥5 admissions in the past 12 months were significantly more likely to be aware of this aspect (p<0.001). In focus groups, nurses reported they maintained the content on the boards and cited lack of access to clinical information and limited use by doctors as barriers. Nurses suggested creating a curriculum to orient patients to whiteboards on admission, and educational programmes for physicians to increase whiteboard utilisation.

Conclusion: Bedside whiteboards are highly prevalent in hospitals. Orienting patients and their families to their purpose, encouraging daily use of the medium and nurse-physician engagement around this tool may help facilitate communication and information sharing.

Keywords: communication; continuous quality improvement; healthcare quality improvement; hospital medicine; patient-centred care.