BMJ 1994;309:1017-101c (15 October)

Letters

Care may not be recorded in the notes

EDITOR, - One of the most striking findings in Mina Mills and colleagues' study of the care of dying patients in hospital was the discrepancy between the nursing care given to the patients and the care recorded in the nursing notes.1 This discrepancy seems to be an everyday occurrence a decade after the study was carried out. The present working practices of nurses, especially those more academically qualified, promote paperwork at the expense of patients' care. My nursing colleagues have pointed out how frequently an inverse relation exists between the quality of the documentation and the quality of the nursing care received by patients. It is to be hoped that clinic audit will address this issue more widely.

I Haslock 

South Cleveland Hospital, Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS4


  1. Mills M, Davies HTO, Macrae WA. Care of dying patients in hospital. BMJ 1994;309:583-6. (3 September.) [Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Relevant Article

Care of dying patients in hospital
M Mills, H T O Davies, and W A Macrae
BMJ 1994 309: 583-586. [Abstract] [Full Text]




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