3rd shift always leaves on time... I never do

Nurses General Nursing

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Ok I know there have been like 1,000 threads on this topic.... But... I'm just so frustrated at work. Every single day 3rd shift is out the door at 7:05am... however no one from first shift ever leaves until after 7:30pm.. usually 7:45pm... We are always there.. tying up loose ends.. making sure our patients are squared away for when 3rd shift arrives...

But yet... I walk out of report (we tape report) at 7:05 this morning and the 3rd shift nurse hands me 6 labels for blood draws that were due at 6:30 and tells me that this patient needs pain meds... and this patient needs nausea meds..... and then I go down to see a different pt and their IV is BEYOND infiltrated!!!

Not a great way to start my shift.... However this evening as they dilly dally in report I medicate my patients at 7:20pm.... and suction a pt that isn't even mine at 7:40pm until they come strolling out of report.. Heaven forbid they do anything if it is after 7:00am... We come out of report every day to beeping IVs.... Bed alarms blaring... call light ringing off the hook...

All I'm saying is... If my patient needs to be medicated, or loses an IV at end of shift... I stay and do it while the next nurse is getting things ready for their shift. They never return the favor! I get sick of it! I'm not even going to go into the fact that I had 2 admissions at 1800. I make sure everything that I can possible do is done before the next shift is out of report. And they still find something to complain about!

I'm not trying to start another shift vs. shift war because it isn't about that... it is about lazy coworkers who don't give a crap about their patients or their fellow coworkers:angryfire

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..

I'm not trying to start another shift vs. shift war because it isn't about that... it is about lazy coworkers who don't give a crap about their patients or their fellow coworkers:angryfire

Wow, I never dared leave (I worked 11-7) til all my work was done. People would say that "nursing is 24 hrs" but that was precisely why I had to finish my work - because the next shift had THEIR 8 or 12 hrs worth of work to do.

On occasion the stuff would hit the fan and I would not be able to complete an admission or something - I would sometimes be an hour or more late. Then the hosp started giving us a hard time about OT - so I'd punch out - and still finish.

When I couldn't finish - boy did I feel like a horrible person - the day nurse would have to spend 10 minutes consoling me that yes, she could take care of it and yes, it was understandable, and yes, I was still worthy of taking another breath. LOL!

I did/do hate leaving work for the next shift and usually the PREVIOUS shift did not leave their work for me, either, except when as I said there was a last-minute admission or an emergency or some such. "Do unto others" is the general rule, or it should be!!!

Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

Since we started punching in and out, this kind of stuff has stopped...we have to fill out a sheet to say why we are late going out. You have to speak up or go to the charge nurse or manager, esp if they are consistently leaving things, and esp if it is the same person.

To the person that said they punch out and then finish your work....that is illegal. You are not covered by the hospital for anything you do or chart after you are punched out. If you have to finish, you really should be punched in. Your legal department will agree.

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Since we started punching in and out, this kind of stuff has stopped...we have to fill out a sheet to say why we are late going out. You have to speak up or go to the charge nurse or manager, esp if they are consistently leaving things, and esp if it is the same person.

To the person that said they punch out and then finish your work....that is illegal. You are not covered by the hospital for anything you do or chart after you are punched out. If you have to finish, you really should be punched in. Your legal department will agree.

Well, you're right -- but that's partly why I haven't worked as a nurse for 4 yrs - that kind of stress - no win situation!

Maybe my legal dept would agree, but my nurse manager didn't seem to object! She was just glad not to get yelled at for our OT. And my day shift nurses were glad not to get my leftovers!

It was mostly that I would do the actual work up to the time I clocked out, and then mostly charting, admission paperwork, and phone calls after that. I could not sit and chart while my pt care was still needing to be done. So there was no handing over blood draws, etc., to my day nurses if I could help it! (But, there were times when I couldn't help it...)

Oh no.

Please don't clock out until you're ready to go home. I don't care how much they holler about OT. You are not covered if you're not on the clock. Period.

Look at it this way... if nurses work off the clock, it gives management justification to short-staff and ends up hurting us all in the end.

"Why looky here! They completed all their care and paperwork in 8 hours! See, 7:1 is the perfect ratio for this shift!"

Please.

I'm not a volunteer.

What I do is in report I tell the oncoming shift what is not complete, such as orders not signed off, something not in the computer, new med not yet given, or anything else. Then I hand off the baton.

There is no reason you should have to regularly stay over to do the next shift's work.

Specializes in LTC, office.

My humble opinion from seven years in LTC. I never found it to be a shift war as much as problem with certain nurses. There were nurses from each shift famous for leaving odds and ends for the oncoming; as they waltzed merrily out the door on time.

I worked each shift at one time or another, but primarily 10:30pm - 7am. One nurse in particular used to give report using the term "can you" an awful lot.

I agree it's a 24 hour job and if something doesn't happen on one 8 or 12 hour shift it's often just fine that it happens on the next. But there are lazy nurses with rotten work ethic out there too.

I don't miss that place.

Have a heart to heart talk with them. If that doesn't work, just start doing the same thing to them. sometimes actions speak more convincingly than words.

I work night shift but 8hr shifts so I am generally running around trying to get my assessments done before everyone is asleep. Then go back and do my charting. My main problem is with AM shift report. I go around and check with my pts at 6am change IV bags that are almost empty ask them if they need pain meds and get all my discharge and OR checklists done as far as I can. One day I was in the middle of report and the nurses I was giving report to started talking about there husbands and hunting and then went on to talk about another nurse on another floor. Then started quizing me about past med history on a pt that I did not get a chance to research. I got out 1/2 hr late. I was so upset I went home and started sending out resumes.

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