Ask a question till reporting nurse can't answer one

[Emergent]

You know what is a pet peeve of mine? Nurses whose style of receiving report involves 20 questions. Ask them until they trip me up.

They seem to have no rhyme or reason for their questions, they keep firing just random ones, or so it seems, until they achieve their goal of finding one I can't answer. Nurses from all departments do it.

Is this a form of 'The best defense is a strong offense' communication technique? Grrrrr.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Oh lord. I could have written this post!

Some nurses do not understand that it is not actually my job to give you the entire H&P, just the pertinent info

Add in so many who STILL not do understand military time (I'm in OB so we are always reporting baby's birth time) and I could pull my hair out. Really? You just interrupted me again to ask if 1210 is AM or PM? PM!!! Or I would have said 0010! GRRRRR!

For us old timers, report always includes the best possible History and Physical findings. If you're not giving H&P, what are you giving?

My pet peeve is nurses who want to give report but aren't prepared to do so. They have to look up pertinent info, like low K+ or something pretty darned relevant, like pt fell, has stitches right temple, LOC is normal but a pupil is sluggish. Now those are pertinent. I don't care a fig about their kids or their SO's or how they arrived or who is with them at that point. But I do want to know all about the abnormal neuro check after a head trauma. Hellooooo.......

Their lack of preparedness makes a 3 minute report take 15. That's so they can dump their pts on the floor because their boss is on them to clear the ER or ICU.

They don't care if I'm in Report myself or whether beds are ready or whether they are fully ready to give report. I stopped holding while they fumbled for pertinent facts, just said I had to take another call and would BRB. But didn't go back, made them call me back. Let them wait, not make me wait and waste my valuable time while they dug up info they should already have had.

[dinah77, ADN]

For us old timers, report always includes the best possible History and Physical findings. If you're not giving H&P, what are you giving?

My pet peeve is nurses who want to give report but aren't prepared to do so. They have to look up pertinent info, like low K+ or something pretty darned relevant, like pt fell, has stitches right temple, LOC is normal but a pupil is sluggish. Now those are pertinent. I don't care a fig about their kids or their SO's or how they arrived or who is with them at that point. But I do want to know all about the abnormal neuro check after a head trauma. Hellooooo.......

Their lack of preparedness makes a 3 minute report take 15. That's so they can dump their pts on the floor because their boss is on them to clear the ER or ICU.

They don't care if I'm in Report myself or whether beds are ready or whether they are fully ready to give report. I stopped holding while they fumbled for pertinent facts, just said I had to take another call and would BRB. But didn't go back, made them call me back. Let them wait, not make me wait and waste my valuable time while they dug up info they should already have had.

Im in postpartum, so there is rarely anything in the pt's H&P that is relevant

When I was in tele that was a a different story

Finally,it is still your responsibility as the oncoming nurse to verify and review pt info and hx

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

Way off topic but....a report that starts " I don't know this patient but I'm calling to give report " is guaranteed to be a total disaster.

How can a nurse accept responsibility for a critically ill human being and not get a report.

How can this oncoming nurse take a pt without having a clue about why the pt is going to ICU, what's been scanned, code status, how much volume was given, what meds were given......

I don't expect perfection but some factual information, like an admitting diagnosis, is part of calling report.

I would prefer some honesty - you are bringing me an unstable patient you don't know a thing about and that you have not even seen him and you want to move him out. Then you can transfer me to the MD who knows what's going on.

[MA Nurse]

I can relate to this post so well. My pet peeve is when the nurses are coming on, but instead of getting report, they are chatting with each other about their upcoming trip they are taking. Then, when I tell the nurse I am ready to give her report, she says she has to go put her stuff away first. Then, when I give report, I am interrupted...right when I am about to tell her what she just asked. Then, she will ask me something that I just gave her the answer to! Can you say not listening??? I can't stand giving report to some people. Our managers will listen to our report sometimes to make sure we include everything. And if the parents are in the baby's room, you better give report in the room in front of them so they can be included or you are in trouble. ugh

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

Then charge for overtime and put a note on your timesheet:

"report started late"

If you are having to repeat yourself it is entirely appropriate to say "you're not listening, I already told you that."

[glasgow3]

As a new grad ICU nurse who worked the night shift I was initially thrown into an internal panic when asked by the oncoming nurse, "...And was that a LEFT subclavian or a RIGHT subclavian?" But it wasn't all that long that my response would be, "First check the area of the left subclavian...if you don't see a central line there check the right side."

Shortly thereafter, the such inquiries decreased dramatically.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

As a new grad ICU nurse who worked the night shift I was initially thrown into an internal panic when asked by the oncoming nurse, "...And was that a LEFT subclavian or a RIGHT subclavian?" But it wasn't all that long that my response would be, "First check the area of the left subclavian...if you don't see a central line there check the right side."

Shortly thereafter, the such inquiries decreased dramatically.

Seriously, the oncoming nurse was dwelling over the right or left side? They will have to look at the patient in another couple of minutes when they do their assessment anyways....or at least I would hope they are looking at them. Sometimes these nit picky questions make me wonder if they are actually doing an assessment in the near future or simply rewording what they were told in report (Hey, it's the only was I can explain some of the crazy charting that I've seen on flow sheets. Tubes/drains/etc that the patient charted on never actually had).

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Seriously, the oncoming nurse was dwelling over the right or left side? They will have to look at the patient in another couple of minutes when they do their assessment anyways....or at least I would hope they are looking at them. Sometimes these nit picky questions make me wonder if they are actually doing an assessment in the near future or simply rewording what they were told in report (Hey, it's the only was I can explain some of the crazy charting that I've seen on flow sheets. Tubes/drains/etc that the patient charted on never actually had).

A little off topic, so sorry in advance. Your comment about the crazy charting reminded me of a situation we had a while back...a lady had passed away and was somehow left in the flow charting. She was charted on as having consumed 100% of her meals for 3 days after she died before it was caught.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

That's bad but hey, the MDs weren't much better in some cases. I had a doc that I had to call to fix his note (you know, back when everything was still paper). He charted that the patient was doing better and would probably D/C the next morning to home...I paged him to inquire if he was discharging the patient to his "forever home". He said, "what do you mean?"...."well, those pages you didn't respond to from overnight were to inform you he was deceased. The intern took care of it. The patient you charted on was in a body bag waiting to be transported down to the morge".

[Gooselady, BSN, RN]

Seriously, the oncoming nurse was dwelling over the right or left side? They will have to look at the patient in another couple of minutes when they do their assessment anyways....or at least I would hope they are looking at them. Sometimes these nit picky questions make me wonder if they are actually doing an assessment in the near future or simply rewording what they were told in report (Hey, it's the only was I can explain some of the crazy charting that I've seen on flow sheets. Tubes/drains/etc that the patient charted on never actually had).

Unfortunately that is REALLY common, 'which side is it on?' questions. Not all of our brains are hooked up with plenty of axons to whatever brain blob's job it is to determine right or left. I can picture it in my head and STILL verbalize the wrong side. If I'm anxious I get my own right and left confused! If I move my body and imitate my mental image of the patient THEN I can tell you what side their PIV is on.

The one particularly dogged nurse who taught me 'I don't know' is a legitimate response was wont to criticize me for neglecting to repeat to her, during bedside report, a detail from the generalized spreadsheet report given to the next shift. "You didn't mention that she has a triple lumen PICC!" she'd say, and shake the spreadsheet in my face as if she were grading me and had to 'mark me off' a point. She took a hella long time to give report to, as 'report' was her time to review labs, MD visits and order changes. She'd ask me WHY the oncologist, who rounded at 6am, didn't order blood for a patients H&H of 7.4 and 23, even though right in front of her face, the doctor noted the labs and chose to do nothing as yet. I don't know how many times I told her "I don't know" about THAT. As if I have a psychic connection with this doctor who rounded nine hours prior to the beginning of my shift. I think these questions shot out of her mouth kind of like some oral incontinence, she didn't actually THINK before she spoke, her anxiety was ratcheted up so high that the slightest abnormality just freaked her out.

I didn't mention before that at least with me, she became less obnoxious and more trusting of me over time, but only after I refused to engage with her anxiety. She was still unpleasant to give report to (evening shift referred to her as The Grillmaster), but refusing to be intimidated calmed her down, a lot. She is actually someone I like personally, and have stuff in common with.

[Baby Wrangler]

I would rather a grillmaster than the person who strolls in half an hour late and rushes you through report by making impatient faces and going "yeah yeah yeah...". Like what I'm telling you is important BASIC stuff that you need to know, and it's not my fault that you can't be bothered to come in earlier. Then later they'll report you and say that you didn't tell them such and such. This one person (there's actually only the one person on the unit that i'm thinking of) actually physically turned her back on me in the middle of report and started walking away 2 mins into the report. Totally flipped my lid on her. Hasn't happened again lol.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

I know some folks like report to be short and sweet so they can start their shift, but turning and walking away in the middle of report? One nurse told me "I don't need to know that." I was open-mouthed with amazement, but recovered fast enough to say, "You may not need to know it, but I need to tell it. You can wait the 20 seconds it will take to complete my report."