Ever hear of "rollover charting"?

[Riseupandnurse]

Nobody ever gets out on time where I have been working (hospital). The 12 hour shifts consistently turn into 14 or 15 hours. Then sometimes the nurses have to come back the next day. Some of them have started to do what they call "rollover charting." This means they work until they are about to drop and then come back the next day and finish their charting. I personally could never do this; my memory is not that good. And what if you got sick or in an accident the next day and couldn't finish up the charting after all? Does this sound like a reasonable thing to do?

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

Sometimes If I'm too far behind to chart and I will come in the next day or next scheduled shift and write what we call a late note. I _________ assumed care of pt. ___________ and xyz.

I would not make this a habit though. You are right.. what if she can't come in. Worse what is not documented is not done. Sounds like a bad practice to me.

[AsatruRN]

That sounds dangerous. My nursing professors always told me to alternate physical tasks with mental tasks. Plus if I were the nurse on the next shift I wouldn't want to put my notes in without the previous shift. I like everything to be in order. Plus all those late entries will bring attention if JCAHO comes in.

I guess if you are too busy to chart and this is a habit you should talk to your supervisor and/or administrators and have some things changed. It just seems like a liability.

[MunoRN, RN]

It seems like a bad idea just in terms of ensuring accurate charting, and if there is no reason why anyone would need to refer to this charting over the next day until it actually gets charted, why is it being done at all?

Mainly, I don't get the premise; if you're so busy during every shift that you are staying over, how does adding more work to the next shift help?

[caliotter3]

I can't imagine an employer allowing this to continue once they figured out what is going on.

[lkwashington]

The facility I work you have withing 24 hours to chart something. If your shift ends, you may go home and get some rest and come back later. If you come and work you can chart on you patient then. I agree I couldnt do this all the time because people would think something is wrong especially if the same people are continiuing to do this. All the over time would be bad for that person.

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

Charting of any procedure is supposed to be done on the same day; ideally immediately it is carried out, but can (and usually is) deferred till later, due to work pressures.

Proof positive that hospitals are 1: understaffed and 2: requiring too much unnecessary charting.

Deferring charting to the next day is illegal and will eventually cause a major medico-legal incident.

Um...and who will take the fall...?

[merlee]

Wow. Talk about a legal incident waiting to happen. No, this is not a good idea.

I realize that *sometimes* you may have forgotten to chart something, but not on a daily basis. No. No. No.

[tablefor9, RN]

Bad Ju-Ju. *anything* can happen, and I'd hate to be the one asked about my late charting in a legal situation.

Please, don't do this. If all you can do is a quick annotation or narrative, at least do it as close to on time as you can.

[Erikadawn RN]

I worked at a nursing home, that wanted you to clock out, and finish your charting. I never did, because I wanted to get paid for my time. The other nurses (majority from other countries) would always say , you will get in trouble. I never got called in by managers or HR, they knew that it was illegal. I got out of there in 6 months.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

When i was on a unit, my daily goal was to get theroutine charting done as quickly as possible after beginning of shift assessments were done. This meant assess then chart ASAP. Of course emergencies, meds, chart checks etc would all chime in during charting time - so i'd do the task that needed to be done and right back into charting. This way if my day fell apart later, at least the bulk of my charting was done and all i'd need to do was updates.

As far as coming in and charting the next day - no thank you. Too much room for error and beyond that my day off is my day off! This means stay as far away from the j.o.b. as possible!

[Belle Epoque]

NO. This is not a solution, it's a cop out. You seriously need to work on your time management skills. Barring the odd exception, there is no reason your charting can't get done in a timely manner. If this means certain tasks need to be left until the next shift, then do it. Delaying charting is illegal, poor practice and NOT an option.