coworkers constantly checking your charting

[MNNICU, RN]

I am just wondering if anyone else has encountered this. I have been an RN for almost 5 years. This is my second RN job and I have been there for about 9 months. For the most part I like the job a lot and my coworkers. One thing is driving me batty. Almost every nurse who I pass my patients on to spends a considerable amount of time going hthrough every single bit of my charting and immediately emails me if I missed the smallest detail. It can be something as little as me having forgetting to add a comment that I notified a doc about a funky lab (even if in my note I stated so and it's charted that I made changes or followed orders to correct the situation). I understand that charting is our way to cover our own butts and all and if they were things that were making it impossible for said nurses to do their job or care for the patient I completely understand. I never check someone else's charting unless there is information I am very specifically looking for and if they missed something it doesn't bother me. I figure if they do that's their problem it's not mine to tattle and correct every little thing. I just don't understand how these nurses have time to go through 12 hours of previous charting with a fine toothed comb and then email that nurse that they missed something! And it's not just me the other day the nurse next to me was complaining that the previous nurse accidentally charted a row of information in the wrong time slot and she corrected it but there was " in error" messages left in the previous row. She was going on about how this nurse "always does that" and "it's so sloppy". I never ever ran into this at the 4 years I was at my previous job. It's not helpful that this facility has literally THE most archaic electronic system I have ever seen ( I had never heard of it before I started this job) it's a truly awful system but they are too cheap to upgrade. Anyone else have this issue? I am about to loose it on these people and am half tempted to find somewhere else to work where people aren't so nosy and stuck up.

[AJJKRN]

I would take it to quality and ask what I they think is expected.

Unless the persons in question are performing a chart audit, they are wasting valuable time being productive.

And actually changing someone else's charting because they didn't like the row it was charted in is just poor professional practice to me. I don't do that even when I'm precepting! (I point it out and if the nurse changes it then great, if not it's their charting anyways)

[beekee]

Let it go. You can't control them, and it's consuming way too much space in your head. If you feel compelled to respond to the emails, just say "thanks" and hit send, but I probably wouldn't even bother with that. If your manager doesn't find your charting inadequate, then just keep on doing what you are doing.

[RNperdiem, RN]

I was also thinking: chart audits? In areas like restraint documentation, we are frequently audited. Nobody wants to do audits, but a certain number of audits is part of the job expectation.

I do read charting. When I am waiting for the night shift nurse to finish giving report to someone else, skimming the vitals, meds, history and labs lets me get a bit of info down on my report sheet before report begins and is very useful.

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

She shouldn't be touching your documentation especially if she wasn't present. That could be seen as falsifying documentation and that is a serious offense.

I too work in NICU and find many of my coworkers to be catty.

Don't let it faze you

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Ignore. Seriously, who has time for that?

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Please don't loose it. Lose it if you must but don't loose it.

Part of my job is doing chart audits. We need documentation to prove that we are giving skilled care to our patients. Too many notes I read are: alert and oriented. Pleasant. Ate well. Will continue to monitor.

That's a useless note. Medicare doesn't care if someone is pleasant. What are you going to monitor and how?

Charting takes time. If you're going to write a note, at least make it count.

On the flip side, I wouldn't be happy if my co-workers went around criticizing each other's notes.

[Garden,RN, ASN, RN]

I have been a nurse for 20 years and they still do it to me. We have a bullying problem in nursing, bottom line. This is just one more example. In other fields only your supervisors get to judge your work, in nursing, many nurses seems to think it his their responsibility to tell everyone else what to do. The supervisors allow and encourage this behavior often. Bullying is the sickness that we have in nursing.

[CrazierThanYou]

I used to work with two nurses who refused to take report from the previous nurse for 30 to 45 minutes while they combed over every inch of that nurses charting. They used it as a bullying tactic.

[heron, ASN, RN]

On the other hand, I have a co-worker who lets me know if I've forgotten to chart a med or write down a cbg and I do the same for her. Mutual back-up not bullying.

[cleback]

It does sound like your unit has a culture for checking peoples charting for errors. How annoying and who has time for that? Is their acuity really low? On the other hand, if the unit has outlined a specific way things needs to be documented and are audited on, I would be open to their corrections. For example, my unit has a specific way to chart critical lab values and restraints.... I would much rather have my coworker tell me I missed something than my manager. That said, it's still weird that the spend precious time looking for mistakes.

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

When you're agency and/or travel nurse the charge nurses and managers will go over your charts with a fine tooth comb looking for mistakes. It's just part of the job. I (giggle) always say to myself "they're getting to see how great charting is done"

It is against the law to go and change someone else's charting so the nurse that does that is putting herself up for a big problem.

Sounds like you work in kind of a hard place.