Rethinking the Language of Bedside Rounds

Bedside rounds call for the presentation of clinical information to a patient and a medical team simultaneously. This approach engages patients, improves rounding efficiency, increases patient satisfaction, and extends the opportunity to observe learners’ communication skills, when compared with clinical presentations done outside a patient’s room.

However, when the presentation shifts from the hallway to the bedside, the discussion is no longer solely among clinicians, and the language of the presentation must also shift. Language adjustments are not always intuitive and must be intentional. Furthermore, the presenting clinician juggles several different tasks during bedside rounds. First, they need to provide clinical information effectively to other team members. Second, they would like to demonstrate to the patient that they understand the larger context of the patient’s presentation (eg, the emergency department course, for a newly admitted patient; or events in the intensive care unit, for a patient transferred from another service). Third, they want to engage the patient and their family in understanding the diagnosis and the plan of care. Finally, the presenting clinician hopes to convey compassion and concern, to avoid introducing unnecessary anxiety, and to steer clear of giving offense. Additionally, other elements may add complexity to the encounter—use of an interpreter, high illness acuity, struggling learners—and need consideration. Achieving all these aims requires strategy and practice. In this piece, we focus on one essential component of communicating effectively during bedside rounds: making deliberate language choices within the case presentation. We describe 4 categories of words to avoid when presenting at the patient’s bedside. We discuss the rationale for each recommendation and provide examples in each category …