Evaluating the Bedside Guide on your unit

GDEEVL002 · Rev D · October 2026

A four-week workflow evaluation you can run yourself, with a ready-made feedback form that lives in your own Google account. Timertag never sees your responses.

What you are evaluating

The Bedside Guide, free from Timertag: one laminated A4 or US Letter sheet on the wall at each bed. Patients scan its QR code to see the warning signs for their IV line, urinary catheter or dressing in their own language, with your unit's call-for-advice number. The guidance also reminds them to brush their teeth twice a day and to ask for help before getting out of bed.

Four-week plan

Week 0: set up

1. Make your copy of the feedback form (below) and turn on response emails and the linked sheet.
2. Make the sheets at go.timertag.com/sheet with your unit name and call-for-advice number. Print one per bed, laminate them, and hang each on the wall by the bed head, within reach of the patient. Scan one printed sheet to check the number before hanging the rest.
3. Make a separate QR code for your feedback form and print it on cards and a staff flyer.
4. Brief your team in a five-minute huddle: what it is, how patients use it, and how to give feedback.

Weeks 1 to 4: run

• Point the sheet out to each patient on admission. Replace any sheet that is damaged or missing.
• Invite patients and families to scan the feedback card before discharge.
• Ask nurses to complete the form once each during the evaluation, at shift change or safety rounds.

End of week 4: review

• Open the form's Responses summary for live charts.
• Paste the charts, linked to the form, into a slide deck for unit leadership or your quality committee.
• Decide with your team: adopt, adjust, or stop.

Set up your feedback form

1. Make your private copy. Open the link below, sign in to your personal or hospital Google account, and confirm that you want to make a copy. You own the copy and all its responses.
2. Turn on response emails. In the form editor, open the Responses tab, click the three-dot menu at the top right of that tab, and turn on email notifications for new responses.
3. Link a spreadsheet. In the Responses tab, click the spreadsheet icon and create a new spreadsheet. It updates every time a response arrives.
4. Publish your copy so it can accept responses, then copy the responder link.

Collect feedback

• Patients and families: turn your form's responder link into a QR code with any free generator. Print it on a small card titled "Tell us what you think" and place it on the over-bed table or by the bed, away from the bedside sheet. This QR code is for your feedback form only and must look clearly different from the Bedside Guide code.
• Nursing staff: print the same code on a flyer titled "Bedside Guide unit evaluation feedback" near the handoff board or staff room. The nurse questions take under a minute.

What the form asks

The form asks about three things the sheet sets out to do: help patients recognize warning signs for their IV line, urinary catheter or dressing; remind them to brush their teeth twice a day; and remind them to ask for help before getting out of bed.

Patients and families

1. Did the guidance help you understand what warning signs to report for your IV line, urinary catheter or dressing?
2. Do you feel more confident about when to alert nursing staff if a problem occurs?
3. Did the guidance remind you to brush your teeth twice a day while in hospital?
4. Did the guidance remind you to ask for help before getting out of bed?
5. Any additional comments or suggestions for the guidance? (optional)

Nurses

1. Did you notice patients or family members asking more informed questions or raising concerns about their IV line, urinary catheter or dressing earlier?
2. Did you notice patients brushing their teeth more often, or asking for a toothbrush?
3. Did you notice patients asking for help before getting out of bed more often?
4. Would you recommend adopting the Bedside Guide sheet as standard on your unit?
5. What features or improvements would make this tool more valuable for your team? (optional)

These are the core questions, version B. You can rename your copy and add questions of your own in a new section at the end. To keep the option of adding your results to a pooled evaluation, don't change the core questions or their answer choices.

Present your results

• Instant summary: the Responses tab shows a chart for every question. Hover over a chart and click Copy to paste it anywhere.
• Self-updating slides: paste charts into Google Slides and choose Link to form. An Update button refreshes them as responses come in.

Pooled evaluation (optional)

We're working behind the scenes to have an independent expert pool results from units that opt in, across many countries, and publish them, if possible. Timertag will not hold or see the pooled data, and your results stay yours: you can publish your own evaluation whenever and however you like.

• At the end of your evaluation, download your responses from the linked Google Sheet as a CSV file (File menu, Download, Comma-separated values).
• At go.timertag.com/pool, check the file and convert it to the pooled format. This runs in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and free-text answers, your unit name and any questions you added are left out.
• Register your interest there. When the pooled evaluation opens, you'll be invited to email your file directly to the independent evaluation lead, from your hospital email address, with the file's fingerprint shown on that page. The lead confirms who sent each file, so every pooled result can be traced to a real unit. Please don't send results to Timertag.
• Keep your original Google Sheet of responses. The lead may ask to see it.
• Sharing results for a pooled publication may need ethics or research governance approval at your hospital.

Keep in mind

• The form asks about workflow, ease of use and understanding. It does not ask about clinical outcomes and collects no patient information. Ask people not to enter names, room numbers or other patient details.
• The form is provided in your language, with the English form as the reference version. If the two differ, the English version applies.
• Follow your hospital's policy for staff and patient surveys, including any review it requires.
• Your results are yours. Timertag welcomes feedback of any kind at info@timertag.com, but sharing it is never required.