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.

[ArtClassRN, ADN, RN]

It can be a form of harassment. I have coworkers who will do this to a nurse that isn't in their social clique in order to pressure them to find a different job.

[SouthpawRN]

You may be handing off to a nurse with OCD or something (I mean that in all seriousness)

[JKL33]

What has been your response (if any) to this behavior?

[LovingLife123]

I have had a couple of people do that to me. I usually just thank them and correct it if it's an error but I think they may have too much time on their hands if they are getting into my chart. One person I personally thought was commuting a HIPAA violation as it was not their patient and I was kind of like what are you doing in my chart. Usually before I leave I double check all of my charting and try to correct anything I missed or charted incorrectly.

There have been times when I have caught the errors of the previous shift but not because I was going through their charting. Just that maybe the row was wrong or they forgot to add the parameter. If that's the case, I will correct it but only on my charting. And I never mention it. We all know how to chart, but being super busy can make us easily mess up or forget something. I know I'm always like at 2am, oh crap, I meant to put a note in about that. I often hope I get that same patient so I can fix it but it happens that sometimes I don't.

We are all human.

[obstrep]

I definitely wouldn't take this personally. I would actually appreciate an extra set of eyes looking over to make sure I didn't forget something, and believe me, I think we all have at some point. If you have ever been on the other end of chart auditing, you would know how much neglect and sloppy charting there really is going on with patient charting. Until I was put into that role I assume everyone charted as appropriately or as through as I did but I was completely wrong. I now encourage our nurses to check each others work and notify the person before I do becasue you know if it's not charted, it never happened. However, I do not agree with someone going back in and changing your documentation. I would definitely let your superior know what's going on becasue that is completely inappropriate and unprofessional.

[Dialysisdarling, BSN]

That sounds seriously petty. When I see that kind of behavior, I tend to think that the person must be very insecure about their own nursing practice. Personally, I have never had the time or inclination to audit someone else's charting, unless I'm looking for something.

[Irish_Mist, BSN, RN]

I'm sorry but who has the time for that? I only care about MY charting. Why should I care about someone else and how they chart unless I'm an auditor? You need to bring this up to your manager with the concern about how it is impacting productivity and patient care. I guarantee you these wenches have more important things to do than sift through their colleague's charting.

[christina731]

There is a specific team for chart audits and I'm guessing they are not part of that team. They must have plenty of time on their hands. I would bring it up to management and show them the emails and see how they like all of the time wasted nitpicking your work.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

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 know this thread is over a year old, but I will comment on it...

Most of this sounds kinda petty, and would let it go; however, notifying MD of "critical" lab values is part of my hospital's written policy. I even worked for a hospital where the lab would write an incident report each and every time that a nurse did not chart that he/she notified Dr. So-and-so of a critical lab. That same facility had been dinged by a surveyor who noticed that it was quite common for this notification to be missing. I'm not sure how bad these "funky" labs are, but I would appreciate a friendly notification if I forgot to chart that the doc was notified, rather than being "written up" by the lab.

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

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.

In your own example, if you charted that you notified a physician and received an email stating so? I would reply stating that you did. "Please refer to note date/time stamped ____" If you did not specifically state the physician was notified this leaves the next RN playing Where's Waldo to see if the order changes were due to the abnormal or some other cause...that would irritate me if it wasn't charted.

If you truly stand by your charting, throw it back at them. "I stand by my charting. If you have a concern, please address it with management".

You very well could be a victim of bullying.