[jtorr]

Hi! I work in a busy 28 bed medical and radiation oncoloy unit. We are at the moment have difficulty with shift handovers being too long and people are not getting off on time etc. Each RN hands over her patients to the next shift as a group. After an evening shift we only have 15 minutes to hand over 28 patients. So I am sure you can see the difficulty we have keeping our verbal reports short. Also because we are a such a busy ward handovers have become a forum for debriefing after our shift. I would appreciate hearing from others who work in the oncology area and hear how they manage the problem of communication between shifts. Thanks Judy

[egmillard]

One way to handover more quickly would be to create a handover via a tape recorder. Although less personal, you would be able to report all relevant information. This report would be created a few hours before the next shift starts, and by the charge person. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does'nt.

[roth0003]

When I worked on a busy surgical unit, we found taped reports GREATLY cut down on some of the "chatter" that made verbal reports unacceptably long. It also keeps the offgoing shift available to answer call lights, etc., while the oncoming shift is getting report. A couple of tape recorders with counters were very helpful - the nurse giving report on tape can write on the board which rooms s/he is reporting on and where this portion of reported is located on the tape.

www2.mc.duke.edu/9200bmt/

[This message has been edited by roth0003 (edited September 07, 2000).]

[KHRISTY]

ON A SURGICAL WARD WHERE I WAS ON PLACEMENT THEY WROTE THE IMPORTANT PART OF THE HANDOVER IN A LARGE DIARY. FOR EXAMPLE THE PATIENT NAME AGE CONDITION AND APPOINTMENTS. THIS WAS VERY EFFECTIVE PROVIDING THAT STAFF DID NOT INCLUDE PERSONAL OR CONFIDENTIAL ISSUES IN THE BOOK. THIS ALOWS STAFF TO READ WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING ON THE WARD SO THAT THEY ONLY NEED A VERY SHORT REPORT RATHER THAN THE WHOLE LOT! AND IT SAVES SIFTING THROUGH CAREPLANS TO SEE WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING.

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[nosilanurse]

I presently work on a very busy Oncology and Med. floor where handovers are more gossip and rehashing sessions than any thing else and this is one of 2 places that we did not use tape recorders and I find it very frustrating because report can take up to and sometimes longer than a half hour and all I keep thinking is just let me go home already It also seems like most of my fellow coworkers are against taping report which really is to bad

[canoehead]

I once worked on a unit that trial "silent report" in that they did not have a verbal or recorded report, but had the oncoming shift read the chart notes from the previous shift. The trial was dreaded by everyone, but after 3 months most preferred it to any other report method. Each nurse was able to take time and review as much or as little of the patient's history they wanted, and then had the opportunity to ask questions if necessary before the offgoing shift left. Of course ongoing issues were sometimes verbally passed on, and in some cases notes were taped to the front of the chart with a "to do list" for complicated patients. The silent report forced us to chart more completely, and acted as a double check that everything was completed and documented when the second nurse reviewed it before the first went home.

[fadzayi]

Hello All
I'm a surgical nurse & I recently started teaching clinical skills at my local school of nursing. I like making lessons as involving as possible. I'm due to teach hand-over & care planning. I have an idea of providing the students with paperwork of fictional patients & getting them to condense the information & hand over what they consider relevant. However, for care planning, I'm looking for a more innovative way of teaching it than just giving them case studies & getting them to design a care plan. I'd appreciate some ideas
Thanks
Fadzayi