A review of a surgical ward round in a large paediatric hospital: does it achieve its aims?

The review which this paper outlines aimed to explore whether the ward round of the surgical team at Birmingham Children's Hospital achieved its objectives and to investigate the attitudes of medical and nursing staff, patients and their parents towards the round. Initial open-ended interviews generated themes from which questionnaires were constructed and administered to 16 members of the surgical team, 30 nurses, 14 patients and 24 parents. The surgical team generally felt that the round plays a valuable role whereas the nursing team expressed dissatisfaction with many aspects of the round. The majority of the surgical and nursing team thought that the round should change from its present form and a number of suggestions were made as to how changes in the round could improve the quality of the teaching experience and promote quality in patient care. Patients tended to express rather neutral feelings towards the round although a significant minority of parents expressed concerns over confidentiality and the level of anxiety felt by children. It is hoped that the results of this review will be used to inform changes in the way the round is carried out. A further review will be initiated in the future to evaluate the efficacy of any such changes.