Everyone has an opinion on the best way to give report, and opinions on what not to do. I like to believe that most of the time I do a good job. There are days where things just do not flow well, and I do not win report giving awards. That said, I always try to be respectful of the oncoming shift when giving report. I think it is important to mentally put yourself in their shoes (or think back 12 hours...) so you give the report in a manner in which you wish to receive it.
So I'd like this thread to be a sort of feedback for report giving. It can even be a dumping ground for things that irritate you while getting report. All positive and negative comments can teach us something, and I am constantly trying to improve.
So I'll start, with more of a dumping versus a positive uplifting.
We have a nurse that tells you NOTHING in report, to sum it up it goes something like this: You have a patient in room xx, Any questions? Obviously he/she says other things, what he/she does say however is usually superfluous. Granted report is really short, guess that gives me plenty of time to figure out all that I needed to know.
Okay I will leave it at that and let everyone else chime in. For now.
I've made the mistake before of just giving a "what happened last night" report instead of quick recap of age, diagnosis, admission date, etc. I realized after I got home that I had taped with no background for two nurses who hadn't worked my side in weeks and probably didn't know my patients at all. One of those nurses happens to be quite fond of not saying anything to you when you do something she doesn't like, but sending out a passive-aggressive, maternalistic, scold-y "all hospital" email to everyone about whatever she's upset about. Sure enough, when I came back that night (and immediately apologized for my lack of proper report) she didn't really have anything to say to me directly but there was a nice email reading, "Nursing staff, please remember that the oncoming shift needs to have adequate background during report" blah blah blah.
I have obviously since dramatically improved the quality of background in my reports.
MY pet peeves, sorry for double-posting, would have to be the oncoming shift not arriving promptly and setting up for report. Someone else mentioned staff bopping around socializing, grabbing coffee, whatever. I mean, get your coffee quickly or whatever, or come in a couple minutes early to say howdy to everyone, but at 0700 please have your butt in the nursing office for report. Then what is up with nurses who just don't seem to have any concept of getting report wrapped up and just go on and on saying the same thing five different ways or going into gossipy detail about this or that...and since I'm in psych there is a LOT of that unfortunately. I'd rather follow someone who is recording because you know report isn't going to devolve into chit-chat.
Umberlee
123 Posts
I've made the mistake before of just giving a "what happened last night" report instead of quick recap of age, diagnosis, admission date, etc. I realized after I got home that I had taped with no background for two nurses who hadn't worked my side in weeks and probably didn't know my patients at all. One of those nurses happens to be quite fond of not saying anything to you when you do something she doesn't like, but sending out a passive-aggressive, maternalistic, scold-y "all hospital" email to everyone about whatever she's upset about. Sure enough, when I came back that night (and immediately apologized for my lack of proper report) she didn't really have anything to say to me directly but there was a nice email reading, "Nursing staff, please remember that the oncoming shift needs to have adequate background during report" blah blah blah.
I have obviously since dramatically improved the quality of background in my reports.