Bed rails. Is there an up side?

Abstract

In 1995, the United States Food and Drug Administration reported 68 deaths, 22 injuries and 12 entrapments related to the use of side rails. How is it that a seemingly innocuous bed feature, touted for its safety and care assistive properties, has turned into a killer? This article describes how nurses, in an effort to assure the public of safe nursing practice, historically embraced a legally defined consensual understanding of bed rail use rather than one defined by science and research. The result was that bed rails continued to be viewed by practising nurses as a benevolent means of patient protection. This article seeks to challenge those beliefs by presenting current research and encouraging moral and ethical reflection on the current practice of bed rail use. Potential alternatives and the need for accurate assessment and documentation are discussed in relation to the development of an understanding of what is appropriate application of bed rails.