Anyone call way after their shift to tell just one more thing? :)

Nurses New Nurse

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I worked 3-11 PM last night. I didn't fall asleep until 3 AM cuz I was studying for the GRE test I'll take next month. Anyhow, I woke up at 6:30 AM cuz I realized I forgot to tell the 11-7 nurse I signed off to about one of my patient's-I forgot to tell her that this patient was going to the cardiac cath lab on Monday at 6:15 AM (& that she's supposed to be NPO after midnight on Sun)-& I'm not going back to work until Mon afternoon, so I'm glad I called-otherwise, she'd miss her test. Anyhow, the nurse I signed off to started laughing when I said who I was on the phone & said "Oh you poor thing, calling me at this hour! Why aren't you sleeping?" :) I'm glad I called (& now I can relax about it!). How many other new grads have called after your shift to tell the ongoing nurse one more thing? :) There was so much going on during my shift, no wonder I forgot to tell her this!

-Christine

Specializes in med-surg 18 months, respiratory 3.5 year.

Have never had to do this yet, but have been on the receiving end of the call. A particular nurse, who always leaves me with strange requests, has called back after she leaves at 3:30pm several times in the last few months. She always seems to have a big disaster with one of her pts. Sometimes when I come on, it takes me an hour to catch up after dealing with the disaster. Most of the time when this nurse calls back, it has not been anything that she should have been worried about, it seems like she just can't leave work at work.:uhoh3:

Rebecca:nurse:

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I've done it many times myself. I do a shift report at the end of my shift that sums up all four halls and any unusual activities. Sometimes when I am drifting off to sleep I will sit up and say "I left that off the report!" My DON knows me well, and since she does the same thing we just laugh together when I call.

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And it's just not nurses who do it, CNA's do it too. Well, at least I do. I'm anal that way. I actually called the hospital in the middle of my nieces' b-day party Sat. I left some charge stickers by the sink. No biggie but it was bugging me.

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I've done that. I called after shift one time to have someone check the restraints on a patient. Everything was just fine, but I don't think I would have slept at all if I hadn't called!

I work in a clinic now, and sometimes I leave messages for myself on my work voicemail over the weekend to remind me to take care of things that will need to be done on Monday. I find that if I leave a message I can forget about it and enjoy my weekend.

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Glad I'm not the only one that jumps up in the middle of the nite in a cold sweat worrying about something I might have forgotten to do. Like one nite about 330 I woke up wondering if I forgot to unclamp the pca line after I changed out a pts cartridge at the end of my shift - this was one of our physicians son's that came in for pain management after an operation at another hospital.

The next am i asked the charge nurse if everything went okay with him last nite - and she scrunches up her face and says weeelll.... Turns out he ended up spiking a low-grade temp and called his dad who ordered a bunch of labs, chest xray - the works. Boy was I sweating it.

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I call all the time the group home I work at. I also get after hour calls. I got a call last night as a lady was there doing a PRI (intake for a possibilty admission to nursing home) and it was questions the AMAPS on duty would just not know. They would be searching for hours.. Its times like that , that make me feel like im not taken for granted and that Hey I actually do know a thing or two..

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Guilty.....

I've also called on my off days just to make sure everything is okay.

I guess when you really care you do those types of things.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Guilty of this one time so far, as a tech though, not even as a nurse! I was in a hurry to leave because I was heading upstate NY and wanted to beat the Friday traffic. In my hurry, I completely forgot the enter the I/O's from a whole set of patients! I realized this while I was driving on the parkway (in traffic of course) and ended up calling the nurses to let them know!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

yes, in fact I just remember something and I'm not calling after being having left for two hours.

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I've been a nurse for many years and I still do that.;)

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Yeah, this isn't a 'new grad' thing lol.

Most embarrassing thing was when I had to call back and give report. The assignment had been changed a couple of times and I had to give report to a number of nurses and I missed a patient... I had gotten home, was trying to relax and decompress when all of a sudden--- OMG!

When I called, the day nurse just laughed and said she knew it had been a rough night, so she managed to figure out what was going on with the patient; wanted to know why I'd bothered to call back lol.

Sheesh.

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Specializes in Med/Tele.

Yes, yes, yes!! I have been a nurse 1.5 years and I do this still from time to time, less than when I was brand new but I still do it. :lol2:

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