Being interrupted during report.

[chicklet74]

I'm a new nurse working overnights. As such I give report to the 8 am nurse. Working 12-8, I'm exhausted by 8 am. I'm ready to go home. Does it drive anyone else crazy when people insist on interrupting report? Yesterday it was about 8 and a nurse who has been out on maternity leave had returned. I hadn't met her as she had been out when I started. She works in a different area so I wasnt giving report to her, but to her friend. She must have interrupted report 5 or 6 times with nonsense. Running in to hug her friend, coming back in to show baby pictures, coming in again to yell at her friend for something she had said on Facebook. Really???? I just sat there for five minutes each time waiting until she finally went away only to be interrupted again two seconds later. It was 8:40 by the time I finally got out of there.

[caliotter3]

Next time don't be so accommodating. Speak up for yourself.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I had a coworker who constantly interrupted while I was giving her report. One time she breezed in at the last minute, plopped down, and I SWEAR the words out of her mouth were "You don't have to give report I already know everything." So I said (to the back of her head) "okay, have a good night. The one in 3 should be back from the ER within the hour and 6's PICC line flushes beautifully, Vanco's in the med cart. See you tomorrow." She turned back around and quit talking right away! Other times I just talked over her when she tried to talk about her dog, kids (sorry, it's not that your kids aren't awesome but i get written up for unauthorized overtime), boat, fishing, some random thing she saw on tv. Usually she'd get the hint pretty quickly, other times I'd just keep talking over her. Going silent just encouraged her to keep talking. I never asked permission to give report, never asked if she wanted it. You're here, clocked in, getting paid, you're taking report NOW and can socialize during your break.

Beautiful :)

We give report to the whole oncoming team, not just RN to RN. That's why I found going silent to be more effective because everyone else getting report wants to get it over with and get started, especially when they know there's a med pass/group/vitals/something coming up in the next hour. If I run overtime, I put the interrupted report as the reason on my paperwork. Speaking up did work too, and sometimes that's what it takes--I've done it, but I found my way of handling it to be more effective in my circumstances.

But be careful when speaking up. There was one nurse who got sick of the chattering and told the staff politely that she was giving report and they could either finish talking later and listen to report, or to leave. Three staff left...and immediately submitted complaints to the DON, stating that she was rude and disrespectful. Don't know how it was resolved.