Intentional rounding: a critique of the evidence

Intentional rounding has been heavily promoted by the prime minister David Cameron and others and is being widely implemented in UK hospitals. It is claimed that the practice has a number of benefits, including reduction in call bell use, falls and pressure ulcers and increased satisfaction. In this article, I will submit these claims to close scrutiny and argue that the evidence base is too flimsy to support the claims. Similarly, the Friends and Family test is being implemented despite the absence of any supportive evidence. The Francis report stated that change cannot be implemented through top-down pronouncements, and yet this is exactly what is happening with rounding and the Friends and Family test. Individual nurses and nurse managers should look more to evidence than to political expedience when implementing nursing policies.