Evidence indicates that while service users are dissatisfied with current ward round practices, studies of how professionals experience this practice are sparse. This study highlights staff view of the once-a-week psychiatric ward round compared to a reformed ward round taking place every weekday. Interviews were conducted at one acute psychiatric ward in north-west England. Our analysis revealed a core theme, ‘forming a new way of working’, which could be understood from three themes. The theme, ‘bound by tradition’, emphasized how the traditional ward round represented a double-edged sword: it provided a safe structure, but it also highlighted a shared awareness of an urgent need to leave old ways of working behind. The process of change became discernable in the themes ‘juggling the change’ and ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, which showed that restructuring the traditional ward round was both possible and valued. We found that staff views on ward rounds are more complex than had been earlier understood, but new ways of working can be implemented, if the impact of tradition, the process of change, and the time to bed down are taken into account.