Getting out on time

Nurses General Nursing

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Hey there--I work 12 hour night shifts 7p-730am. Report is supposed to be from 7-7:30. Typical for most institutions I imagine. Our facility does what they call huddle at 0700/1900. This is a time that the house supervisor does a quick overview of everything going on in house. Which actually turns into mini report on every patient--usually 25-35 patients. By the time that is over and the day shift comes out for report it is sometimes 7:15. They then proceed to wander around, chatting, getting labels, etc. Now it is 7:20 or 7:25 and they want the most thourough report about every detail on each patient (4-6). Inevitably I am not getting out until 8:00am (and that is if there isn't anything out of the ordinary). I am feeling frustrated and angry. I see the same thing from nights to days, but it seems like it is worse the other way or day shift just isn't ready to give report. Which then means I can't start my shift in a timely fashion.

My my question is this normal or am I being overly sensitive and particular? I have only worked here 8 weeks, and am already contemplating other employment because this makes me so angry, but if it is like this everywhere I'll suck it up. I know getting out on time isn't a guarantee, things happen at change of shift. But when things aren't happening and it should be a smooth report off there is no reason to be out late. Right?

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

I'm not sure it's like that everywhere, but a good many places are like that. What time is your shift? If you go until 7:30, not much use in complaining about not getting off until 7:30. But if your shift is over by 7:30, you're entitled to get out then . . .

At only 8 weeks though, you haven't been there long enough to be a proven part of the team or a change agent. You risk alienating your colleagues if you choose to make an issue of this. What do the other night nurses say? Feel them out a bit, and once you've been there a bit longer you may want to, as a group, bring it up at a staff meeting to try to negotiate a smoother change of shift.

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Yes. We go till 7:30. I have no problem being there until that time. But when I am not even able to start report until close to that time is what makes me upset. I am even ok staying over 10-15 minutes. But when every shift is at least 20-30 minutes past is what my complaint is. Like I said, I know things happen and can't expect to leave right at 7:30 every morning, but it isn't ever happening, whether it is a quiet day or not.

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I work 12 hour days. I'm ready to take report at 0700. Not every nurse is, though. We have some stragglers that come in 10-15 minutes late. Why that is allowed, I just don't know.

I think it's because the overnight shifts don't get a half hour dinner break that they start at 1915 or 2315 and they're supposed to leave at 0715. It's next to impossible to give bedside report to several different nurses in 15 minutes and get out on time. Some of the evening nurses take their sweet time getting ready to take report and I'm sure some of the day nurses do too. I think it's rude. The only time I might get out on time is if I've had a few discharges and have 3 or fewer patients to report off on.

Every now and then, management makes noises about wanting us to get out on time, though it's been less since they've changed the policy on overtime - we don't make time-and-a-half unless we stay over one hour past the end of our shift.

I have to admit that after a long day, I just want to give report and get out of there. But, if it's any consolation to you, it rarely happens at my place of work.

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

I just started working at a place where we do a huddle and then bedside report. Our unit is a lot smaller, but I can honestly say that getting out on time or early has not been am issue that I've seen so far. Here's what seems to contribute:

-Start huddle right at 0700.

-Huddle has a pretty specific outline and is summarized by the charge nurse on a triplet sheet that gets passed on to the next shift.

-Report is more about the big picture stuff for each patient. Everyone comes in a few minutes early to look up recent labs, vitals, etc., so that information doesn't need to get passed on in report.

It would be hard to enforce everyone coming in early, but it seems like huddle could easily be consolidated. Maybe start by making a list of what you think is important in huddle, get other people's opinions, and create a new outline to present at your next staff meeting or whatever. Like PP said, maybe it's better to do this slowly as you get to know everyone on the unit, but not being able to get out on time because others aren't where they need to be is a huge pain. So I would certainly let it be known that you want to improce on that as a unit, once you feel the time is right.

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Goodluck! Oral report and rounding doesn't help in trying to get out on time! We had taped report back in the day and you could actually get out on time! Taped=like a voice mail you would listen to, instead of having to wait for each nurse to sign off with each nurse!

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When I was a CNA, huddles would only take about 5 minutes. Charge RN would use this time to go over policy, new initiatives, and then just the essential patient highlights; e.g how many discharges, what patients were fall risk or bed exiters, if we had any extra high acuity patients...seems unnecessary to go through a report on all 25 when you are only caring for a subset, even if you have a buddy to cover during breaks.

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Thank you everyone for your insight. I am going to just sit on this awhile longer. The stress of being a new grad, plus night shift, plus family obligations have caught up to me. I am going to do the best I can with what I have to work with and see what happens in the upcoming months before deciding whether to talk to my

manager about it.

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