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.
Report seems to be a pi***** contest, a nurse on nurse competition. And it's 'unspoken', if you were to ask if this IS a competition or the 60,000 Dollar Question game, you'd get a shocked look. I don't think it's exactly conscious. But it speaks to the culture of nursing. Not every nurse, but a significant number. It reminds me of how the biggest sister picks on the second littlest sister, who then takes it out on the littlest sister. We 'take it out' on each other, and too often, our ancillary staff (read: anyone of 'lower status'). I don't see this as totally deliberate, though it may be with some individuals. But it's a culture where this kind of behavior is, at least, tolerated, if not encouraged. "Bad" behavior shouldn't be tolerated. How 'not tolerating it' works out will be different between individual nurses, but wouldn't it be great if the majority of nurses refused to tolerate immature, competitive behavior because they regard themselves as professionals?
Here's the thing. Report is supposed to be basic, pertinent background with highlights.
Every nurse is responsible for looking up info on their pts themselves. Everyone must do a thorough assessment themselves.
I can't count how many times I have been given incorrect info, or part of an assessment was NOT WNL and yet that is how everyone is charting it.
I will not spoonfeed pt info to you, or do your work for you. When you take a pt assignment, you are taking responsibility; be careful and do complete head to toe assessments and reviews of a pts chart
I expect the off going nurse to provide me with CC, diagnoses, significant co morbidities, significant events, and discharge plan with social history. If those were the ONLY things I received, I would be happy, but those seem to be the hardest to actually get, though. Within an hour of receiving five patients, I need to know everything about them, and I can't always get through the notes until about 11 am. Labs take a minute to review, as do the active orders. The notes, however, take much longer, so, yeah, I'd appreciate a little help there.
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.
Gooselady, BSN, RN
601 Posts
Report seems to be a pi***** contest, a nurse on nurse competition. And it's 'unspoken', if you were to ask if this IS a competition or the 60,000 Dollar Question game, you'd get a shocked look. I don't think it's exactly conscious. But it speaks to the culture of nursing. Not every nurse, but a significant number. It reminds me of how the biggest sister picks on the second littlest sister, who then takes it out on the littlest sister. We 'take it out' on each other, and too often, our ancillary staff (read: anyone of 'lower status'). I don't see this as totally deliberate, though it may be with some individuals. But it's a culture where this kind of behavior is, at least, tolerated, if not encouraged. "Bad" behavior shouldn't be tolerated. How 'not tolerating it' works out will be different between individual nurses, but wouldn't it be great if the majority of nurses refused to tolerate immature, competitive behavior because they regard themselves as professionals?