Preceptor quizzed me on orientation last week: in our hospital, four rails up = a restraint unless it’s a specialty bed. I’ve heard some places say three depending on the bed style — what did you get taught? anyone else?
Got the same orientation quiz: 4 up = restraint unless a specialty bed, and 3 up if it blocks egress. > places say three depending on the bed style — what On split-rail beds, three up usually meant they couldn’t exit, so we treated it as a restraint and got an order — do you use a quick ability-to-exit check?
But on my floor we do a quick ‘egress check’ on standard beds: if the patient can step out at the foot with only the head rails up, it’s not treated as a restraint even if that’s three rail pieces. Caveat — if the foot rail is up or the three rails block egress, we treat it as restraint and instead drop the foot rail and use the bed alarm; how does your unit count split rails?
@MayaCNA Same here on 4 up unless specialty, but my go-to is to chart “assist rails for mobility” and do a quick exit test at the mid-rail; if they can step out with the bed low/locked and an alarm on, we don’t call it a restraint — only caveat is impulsive wanderers, then I get the order. Does your policy count each split rail as one or two?