LAUSR

BACKGROUND Hourly rounding is an organized practice where nurses perform regular checks on individual patients at fixed intervals in order to elicit any information that will improve the patient's care and well-being. Weaknesses in the existing literature on rounding include a lack of focus on the nurse-patient interaction, the absence of a guiding theoretical framework, and, lastly, marginal implementation of rounding within the psychiatric setting. PURPOSE The intent of this paper is to address these weaknesses by describing and proposing a rounding tool, based upon the acronym ICARE, to be used in the inpatient psychiatric setting. Roach's Theory on Caring will be the theoretical underpinnings for the basis of this rounding initiative. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS It is the belief that the hourly rounding initiative will improve satisfaction and the overall quality of care for the psychiatric patient.