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Bedroom areas

 

Why we looked at bedroom areas

Bedroom areas can provide quiet, personal and private space in which to retreat from a busy ward environment.

What we expect to find

People should have an easily identifiable, personalised area in the ward that affords privacy and allows space for personal belongings.

What we found

Many of the wards that we visited did not provide single rooms and most wards were a mixture of dormitory areas and some single rooms.Despite this we were looking to see if the person's individual room or bed area was personalised, protected, easily visible, identifiable and secure.We were also looking to see if the room had easy access to toilet facilities and if there was adequate storage space for personal belongings.

Fewer than half of wards visited had rooms or bed areas that were personalised and looked as though any effort had been taken to make them identifiable to the occupant. Just over half of rooms had access to en-suite toilet facilities.

We found some wards where the practice of locking bedroom doors during the day continues.We were told that this is because some people may interfere with the personal belongings of others but we found other wards where although the potential for this existed the bedroom doors were kept open.In areas where doors were locked because of the potential for other people to interfere with belongings we found nothing to aid the person's orientation to their own space e.g. family photographs or identifiable personal belongings.

On one ward we visited we were told by the charge nurse that as people were only admitted for an average of five weeks that they felt there was no need to personalise the bed area.At this visit though we found a patient having difficulty finding her bed area - she told the Commission visitor that everywhere looked the same.

Personalisation of rooms in any way was usually left for relatives to do.We often found that people's names were handwritten or typed onto small pieces of paper and placed on the locker beside the bed.In one area these had then been put into a polythene pocket and the reflection from this made it almost impossible to read the name.

Action needed

  • All assessment wards must ensure that individual's bed areas are personalised, recognisable and offer privacy and dignity.