change of shift report

[NS_RN]

1. taped

2. verbal

3. written

Which do you prefer?

[whipping girl in 07, RN]

I prefer verbal, except when I have to get report from the nurse who tells me all about the patient's family and social issues, and nothing about what's wrong with the patient. I swear, you have to damn near pull her teeth to get her to tell you pertinent info, and then half of it is inaccurate anyway. Maybe if she just filled out a form with blanks for each system, she'd give a better report (although I have been known to question whether the patient lying in the bed is the same one she gave me report on). :chuckle

[CritterLover, BSN, RN]

Working in ICU, we do verbal report mostly, sometimes written if the nurse had to leave early; which is fine for 2 or 3 patients. I think, though, if I worked on the floor I'd want a taped report, since it is more concise and just gives the pertinent info.

[prmenrs, RN]

We did verbal @ the bedside, only time of day that visitors are excluded from the unit. We could say the baby was a PIA, even in front of them; we actually usually referred to them as"high maintanence". Same for parents (no, we didn't say THAT in front of them, that's why they weren't there for report!! Well, that and confidentiality.)

[CANRN, MSN, RN]

we tape,then update after if we need to.

My mother is currently in the hospital so I am seeing the "other side" right now. She has multiple problems, one being horrible pain (she has cancer) and needed medicated at change of shift last night. This hospital does verbal report, needless to say, she waited over 45 mins for that pain med and by the time it came she was in tears. NOT GOOD!

Never realized how important it was to keep the nurses on the floor during shift change. It's better for the patients.

[oldgirl, RN]

Tape most of the time, with verbal update if needed. Faxed reports from ER. If we don't get taped, we give verbal-but taping seems to be better for time management at shift change-plus leaves the off-going RN free to give pain meds or deal with problems that crop up during the 1/2 hour overlap.

[litebrite]

The way we do it is almost like the above post. We get faxed report from ER, GI Unit, OR, or any procedures. Shift report is taped and then verbal or written updates and then asking or answering questions. I think taped report works well if the RN before you gives good report and the one after you shows up on time. It works well with the 1/2 overlap if they are there on time otherwise they are only screwing thmeselves because we leave. I like them to be finished when I leave but it doesn't always happen. We still do phone report on transfers but the faxed report is coming for that too.

[nurse2002]

I prefer a verbal report with walking rounds to see every pt with the nurse that is giving me report. Unfortunately this is not anywhere near the norm. Ive only encountered this at one facility.

[ShandyLynnRN, BSN, RN]

Verbal... I HATE taped report! I have never had a faxed report either, I think I would hate that!

CANRN, I can't imagine anyone making a patient wait, especially for pain meds!!! If something like that comes up while we are in report, we just stop, and go do it!

I also like verbal report just because I am a newer nurse (5 years, but only 2 in OB) and I like to be able to ask questions to the more experienced nurses coming on, for instance "what would you have done", "should I have waited to call the doc", "what is the significance of these lab values", "have you ever been in this situation", etc... Report is a great learning experience for me!

Verbal report also gives us the opportunity to report on "housekeeping" issues, like, "we didn't have time to stock the labor room", or "can you please make sure such and such is ordered, we are almost out", or "where in the world did all the stethoscopes go?".....

And I also like verbal report because it allows the peer interaction, especially for those of us who don't have a life outside of home. I like being able to say, "by the way, how is your grndma doing", or "guess what my son did last night!"

[nursedawn67, LPN]

We do verbal at the LTC facility where I work, I prefer it then I'm sure that I have told them what I need and that they were there listening. One facility I had worked at we taped, and I had left some crucial info on the tape, well the next shift decided to not listen to the tape right off and they did something which caused a problem and I got the blame for it...never again.... I give verbal.

[NurseDennie, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by CANRN

we tape,then update after if we need to.

My mother is currently in the hospital so I am seeing the "other side" right now. She has multiple problems, one being horrible pain (she has cancer) and needed medicated at change of shift last night. This hospital does verbal report, needless to say, she waited over 45 mins for that pain med and by the time it came she was in tears. NOT GOOD!

Never realized how important it was to keep the nurses on the floor during shift change. It's better for the patients.

That is EXACTLY why I would go by EACH of my patients BEFORE end of shift and see what they needed and ask about pain "Because it's shift change, and we're kinda hard to get ahold of whilst we give each other report." Everybody I precepted got that lesson from me because by the time I left bedside nursing, these people were *way too sick* to be ignored for a full 45 minutes. I'd actually tell the patients that were with it enough to know I was talking to them that I was just checking to see if they needed something and tell them who the night nurse would be and tell them goodnight.

Our mgmt went from one to the other on the protocol for report in my area. We were required to do walking report (I think that's the best) then we were required to do nurse-station report - which is a pain when you get everybody jostling for a place to sit down (going-off nurses needed to sit, going-on nurses needed to sit to write notes) and the noise level was something awful.

I once had to go back and find my jot page to show my manager that I'd reported something. All because this one night nurse who was famous for doing everything else *But* listen to your report, missed something and told the manager that I hadn't reported it.

I was soooo p/o'd to have to go to the nurses' station, and dig through my stuff... putting me behind during my shift ....to show her the sheet where I'd noted it and where I'd ticked it off as having been reported. Pretty crapppppy when you have to document stuff like that, if you ask me. Besides it was something that was well documented in the patient's chart (something to do with meds) and she SHOULD have picked it up from there anyway.

I guess I'm PMSing - this irritates me all over again and that must have happened 8 years ago at least.

Love

Dennie

[RN-PA, RN]

I guess I don't really have a preference. With taped reports, I just make notes on questions I might have or things omitted by the nurse taping report and ask after listening. Taped reports tend to go faster.

If I'm getting or giving a verbal report, we might get side-tracked talking about stuff happening "politically" on our unit or go into too much detail about a patient's family issues, for example. The good thing about a verbal report, though, is if the nurse following me has had the patient and knows them, I don't need to go into much detail about past medical history, recent tests/procedures, consults, etc.

By the way, I just heard today at work that there's a nearby hospital that no longer alows taped reports. Someone's determined that it violates patient confidentiality. I don't get it.

[surgorthonurse]

I would much rather give verbal report. Taping report gets so LONG......WINDED.....