Analysis of questionnaire comments
| Themes | Number of comments | Verbatim quotes for what makes a good and bad ward round from multiple respondents |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | 90 | I feel that good communication is the most important part of the ward round, in particular, making sure that parents and children understand what is going on by using language and terms that they can understand If the nurse looking after a certain patient is unavailable for the ward round, certain medical staff fail to inform nurses of any changes or important decisions made, causing confusion and delays in tasks being carried out. Dismissive attitude towards nurses or parents opinions |
| Team working | 70 | Able to include and seek opinions of all team members, parent and child. Not involving all team members so that vital bits of information are missed or team members feel that they are not involved |
| Decision making | 61 | The most important is taking some actions and not just ‘continue the same treatment’. Not thorough enough so other issues need to be addressed later in the day |
| Time management | 52 | Poor time management: either skip through patients without really addressing the key issues or take so long and go into so much detail that the participants start to lose the will to live |
| Teaching | 32 | To be able to teach and get on with the business of the ward round, teaching those alongside as well as learning yourself |
| Leadership | 25 | Seniors who are intimidating to junior staff and who do not explain why they are changing plans result in juniors who don't really know what they are doing for the rest of the day and don't understand why they are doing it |
| Preparation | 20 | Timely preparation and good handover make ward rounds much more efficient and productive |
| Knowledge | 19 | Knowing your patients and what has been happening with them before you go and see them. Poor medical knowledge of the trainee leading the ward round |
| Organisation | 17 | Being organised but not rushed. Personal organization |
| Being thorough | 17 | Being too fast and incomplete assessment as a result. Poor attention to detail. Making the decision based on other people's examination and history findings |
| Miscellaneous (noisy environment) | 12 | Not private enough, overcrowded ward round. Emphasis on areas of personal interest |
| Enthusiasm | 7 | Enthusiasm to inform and educate children, families and staff |