Garbage Report

vanilla bean · Apr 12, 2018

Report: "No change." I had never taken care of the patient before.

smf0903 · Apr 12, 2018

I think the worst reports are those that are given and "everything's good" then during assessment you find a ton of stuff that couldn't have even been looked at during previous shift (and I'm not talking about a crazy previous shift, like everyone is sitting at the desk shooting the breeze and talks about their 'easy' shift...and you find your patient with a 3-day old PEG dressing with green pus that you literally have to irrigate off the patient so it doesn't pull their skin off, stuff like that)

I will stay late to help if I would want someone to stay to help if the situation were reversed...an unstable pt, an unruly pt, an admission that came at shift change, stuff like that.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Apr 12, 2018

Back when written report still existed. On the form I see "iv reseal". That's it. Well, at least if it flushes and I need to code them I have access...which leads me to the next one.

"The patient is a DNR, CMO..." I had by now learned to check if this nurse's patients still had pulses before accepting them. I walk into the room and I've got a stiff. Literally. He was ice cold and stiff. He had bee dead a while. It's days like that you know that your day is not going to go well.

"OH THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE!!!" From offgoing nurse. Um, can I forget I clocked in, turn around, and pretend I wasn't scheduled today???

smf0903 · Apr 12, 2018

"The patient is a DNR, CMO..." I had by now learned to check if this nurse's patients still had pulses before accepting them. I walk into the room and I've got a stiff. Literally. He was ice cold and stiff. He had bee dead a while. It's days like that you know that your day is not going to go well.
?

That happened to me once. I wasn't mad that the pt had died (of course) but I was super POed that literally everyone was sitting looking at pics on their phones and this poor dead pt was covered in blood, reeked of urine (was still in urine-soaked bottoms and sheets) and some of the family was in the daggone room waiting for other family to arrive. Needless to say before anything else happened, that shift got started with completely bathing and changing linens for that pt so the family didn't have to see them like that. I could not believe they had the family sitting in the room with their loved one in that condition. Totally unacceptable.

Guest219794 · Apr 13, 2018

I don't care about report, as I work in an ER with computers.

I can look up whatever I need a lot faster than a person can speak.

And I stay late frequently. If I have the time, and it is busy, I do what I can to ease the transition.

Crush · Apr 13, 2018

1) Worst report - Ones with too little info ( I do read charts but still, give me something to go on ) or hate ones with every little detail (way too much info )> I love the Goldilocks reports though, not too little and not too much. :)

2)Yes, I will stay to help out now & then. If I know my co-worker has been busting **** then I will help out my team. They do the same for me. Now if the nurse did not utilize good time management then that is another story.

amoLucia · Apr 13, 2018

Report: "No change." I had never taken care of the patient before.

Oooops. Guilty as charged once.

Only my report was "101B - SOS Same old Sammie". "102A ----"

Guy was with us forever, just waiting for a NH bed. Easy care. Nothing going on. Cognitively impaired, but just a sweetie. Everybody knew him.

SOS

MunoRN, RN · Apr 13, 2018

I worked at a place that was trialing a 'faxed' report for patients coming from the ER, we filled out a form and faxed it to the receiving unit. One of my fellow ER nurses faxed a 'report' that just had a set of vitals, which were normal, and didn't see why that wasn't sufficient. Needless to say she was generally useless as a nurse.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Apr 13, 2018

I worked at a place that was trialing a 'faxed' report for patients coming from the ER, we filled out a form and faxed it to the receiving unit. One of my fellow ER nurses faxed a 'report' that just had a set of vitals, which were normal, and didn't see why that wasn't sufficient. Needless to say she was generally useless as a nurse.

Absolutely HATE faxed report from the ER. Got a patient with a nitro drip not attached to the pump with the clamp wide open. No mention of the drip. Patient was just dropped off in the bed for me to find. Then I was actually overjoyed when I found the tubing to THAT iv tangled in his linen with the iv cath attached so it just free flowed into his bed and not him. The NS was clamped for transfer. That iv was still in the patient. Patient admitted with HTN. Nurse suffered a CVA on arrival to unit.

MunoRN, RN · Apr 13, 2018

Absolutely HATE faxed report from the ER. Got a patient with a nitro drip not attached to the pump with the clamp wide open. No mention of the drip. Patient was just dropped off in the bed for me to find. Then I was actually overjoyed when I found the tubing to THAT iv tangled in his linen with the iv cath attached so it just free flowed into his bed and not him. The NS was clamped for transfer. That iv was still in the patient. Patient admitted with HTN. Nurse suffered a CVA on arrival to unit.

I'm happy to now work in a state where a faxed report is illegal. Although in general I don't see how any competent nurse can find a faxed-only report to be appropriate in a patient being admitted to a hospital, whether it's legal or not.

RNperdiem, RN · Apr 13, 2018

Change of shift reports are pretty good. The only reports we roll our eyes at are the OR nurse reports. They rarely have any useful information that we would want to know. When the patient gets to the ICU, the anesthesia team will tell us the real story.

I do stay late to help the night shift nurse if my patient takes a sudden downturn at change of shift. I know the patient better and can help get the patient stabilized before I leave. Nurses have done this for me in the past, and I like to return the favor.