Bed making is an essential procedure in nursing where nurses prepare and arrange different types of beds for the patients comfort in the hospital or other healthcare institutions. Bed making is also a necessary skill for nursing assistants to keep the environment clean, prevent skin breakdown and the spread of infection, and respect the resident’s dignity by providing an orderly. There are different types of beds, including open beds, closed beds, occupied beds, cardiac beds, fracture beds, and blanket beds. Bed making procedure ensures the patients comfort according to the situation. The purposes of bed making include providing a safe and comfortable bed to the patients, organizing a specific ward, being prepared for any critical or emergency condition, preventing bedsores, promoting neat appearance and cleanliness, and teaching the relatives to take care of the sick at home.

The procedure for making an unoccupied bed includes sanitizing the bed if it is soiled, placing the fitted sheet on the bed, smoothing the sheet to prevent wrinkles that can cause injury to fragile skin, placing the angled edge of the sheet on top of the bed, lowering the angled sheet back over the edge of the bed, placing a bedspread or blanket on top of the sheet per the resident’s preference, laying a pillow on the bed and sliding the pillowcase over the pillow, and putting the pillow at the head of the bed with the open end of the pillowcase faced away from the door.

For occupied bed making, the patient may not be able to assist with things like turning, so it is important to protect oneself by getting at least one other staff member to assist. Historically, nursing students were taught three styles of bedmaking: “open beds” (those about to be occupied by a patient), “closed beds” (unoccupied beds covered with a top sheet to keep dust and dirt away), and how to make beds with patients in them.