Calling report to the floor.

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I don't know if every time I call I end up catching a nurse whose been a having a bad day or is not feeling well, but of the times I've called every time I have called I've gotten the worst kind of attitude. I almost feel as if, perhaps, it is because the nurses that gave me attitude feel as if I'm ruining their day by adding one more patient.

I get it, it sucks. No one enjoys the current state of staffing ratios. I worked the floor and understand. However just as much as I'm going to be an adult and try my best to not take your displaced frustrations personally, also please try to take me sending you a patient not personal.

If it is is any consolation, by the time I return to my unit - my empty room will be clean already and that means time to prepare it for the next train wreck coming my way. I most likely will not go back and have time to relax. Maybe a quick lunch, as my next train wreck is life flighted to me or your next rapid response ends up here.

Just know we are all in the same business. Never anything personal. If my charge nurse ever calls your unit to expedite a transfer, know she's not doing it to be mean. It's because someone out there really needs that ICU bed. What if it was your mom or dad or friend?

When I worked the floor and was busy as can be, of course I would be a little uneasy when I was getting 5 calls because receiving report was delayed 10 minutes because I was doing wound care etc. So yes I get it. This post was intended as a neither side of the grass is greener kinda post. If I have a floor status patient in the ICU with transfer orders and I know there's no one in need of a room or we have other empty rooms, I will call you report and and ask you "Hey floor nurse, have you had lunch? Go eat and then I'll take you the transfer, ok?" Let's be kind and look out for each other!

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.

Haha, everybody hates admissions.

Today my coworker in PACU had an ICU nurse trying to argue & insist that the pt couldn't be ready for discharge to the unit because they had only been in recovery 30 minutes. Bwahaha!! It was only a TEE/cardioversion & the pt came from ICU & that nurse to begin with. Yeah, let's just keep him here long enough to bump him (& his bill) up to the next level because it was too quick for you.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Haha, everybody hates admissions.

Today my coworker in PACU had an ICU nurse trying to argue & insist that the pt couldn't be ready for discharge to the unit because they had only been in recovery 30 minutes. Bwahaha!! It was only a TEE/cardioversion & the pt came from ICU & that nurse to begin with. Yeah, let's just keep him here long enough to bump him (& his bill) up to the next level because it was too quick for you.

Why would his bill "bump" up?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Haha, everybody hates admissions.

Today my coworker in PACU had an ICU nurse trying to argue & insist that the pt couldn't be ready for discharge to the unit because they had only been in recovery 30 minutes. Bwahaha!! It was only a TEE/cardioversion & the pt came from ICU & that nurse to begin with. Yeah, let's just keep him here long enough to bump him (& his bill) up to the next level because it was too quick for you.

Why does the PACU keep ICU patients? We get them straight from surgery.

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Well, this thread is starting out civilized.........

FWIW, I feel the same. If the floor is getting slammed, and I can help, I do.

I put in second lines when needed, and advocate for central access when appropriate.

And, I am always polite and friendly when I call report.

As far the whole cranky-because I am-getting-yet-another-patient- I really don't get it. There is so much we can't control at work, the only thing we can control is our own attitude. Why chose to be cranky?

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Specializes in Oncology.
Why does the PACU keep ICU patients? We get them straight from surgery.

Yeah, so does our icu. What's the point of a critical care nurse with a 1 or 2 patient ration watching them on a monitor in PACU vs ICU? In fact, we don't have off hours PACU, so if emergency surgery happens then, ICU gets to recover those patients too.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Yeah, so does our icu. What's the point of a critical care nurse with a 1 or 2 patient ration watching them on a monitor in PACU vs ICU? In fact, we don't have off hours PACU, so if emergency surgery happens then, ICU gets to recover those patients too.

Yes. Maybe it depends on the type of ICU. I guess some ICUs are not as equipped in carrying for patients recovering from anesthesia.

I work at a level one. We do it all, heck we do bedside surgery.

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Yes. Maybe it depends on the type of ICU. I guess some ICUs are not as equipped in carrying for patients recovering from anesthesia.

I work at a level one. We do it all, heck we do bedside surgery.

It depends. Not all critical care units actually have intensivists available at all times (or at all) which means they can't recover people from anesthesia (because no one is trained to put an airway in emergently, among other reasons). this also means that those ICUs are not actually real ICUs but that's another matter entirely. Lots of hospitals call their units ICUs with nary an intensivist in site.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
It depends. Not all critical care units actually have intensivists available at all times (or at all) which means they can't recover people from anesthesia (because no one is trained to put an airway in emergently, among other reasons). this also means that those ICUs are not actually real ICUs but that's another matter entirely. Lots of hospitals call their units ICUs with nary an intensivist in site.

We have anesthesia residents/chiefs and surgical residents and chiefs in my SICU

and in my MICU we have pulomary fellows.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

If I had a nickel for every time I was this close to being caught up, and then get told: "PACU is on the line with report" and I didn't even know I was getting another patient - I really hope my dejection wasn't apparent in my voice when I took report.

When hard-working people fight over workload, it's because both are overloaded. When you're working flat-out and someone wants to dump more work on you, it's easy to think someone isn't pulling their weight. This is what short-staffing does: it pits us against each other. When we're giving each other attitude, we're really barking up the wrong tree. Some day we'll realize just how much we (and our patients) are hurt by crappy staffing.

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If I had a nickel for every time I was this close to being caught up, and then get told: "PACU is on the line with report" and I didn't even know I was getting another patient - I really hope my dejection wasn't apparent in my voice when I took report.

When hard-working people fight over workload, it's because both are overloaded. When you're working flat-out and someone wants to dump more work on you, it's easy to think someone isn't pulling their weight. This is what short-staffing does: it pits us against each other. When we're giving each other attitude, we're really barking up the wrong tree. Some day we'll realize just how much we (and our patients) are hurt by crappy staffing.

Good point. I once asked a unit clerk to let a reporting nurse know that I'd call her back in five minutes. The clerk then informed me that it was that nurse's third time trying to call report. That's great ....no one had even told me I was getting a patient and I had no idea that anyone had been trying to reach me until that moment.

In general, I'm easy to give report to. My favorite line is, "You've already told me too much. Just send them over."

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Yes. Maybe it depends on the type of ICU. I guess some ICUs are not as equipped in carrying for patients recovering from anesthesia.

I work at a level one. We do it all, heck we do bedside surgery.

Bedside surgery? Nobody gives a rat's patooty about sterile environment?

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