Let the next shift deal with it...

nursedawn67, LPN · Feb 27, 2002

In every facility (LTC) I have ever worked in this has happened!

One evening one of my fellow evening nurses took report from a day nurse and he had an admit that day and instead of checking the orders he left them for the evening nurse and said I couldn't make out what these said you'll have to do it!! The lady had been there for hours and he just pushed it off, mind you if there are questions about these orders us night nurses have to call the doctor at home to ask him. If the day nurse had done his job and checked them he could have called the doctor at his office instead of us taking up the docs personal time.

This post could be a hundred miles long with examples!

MQ Edna · Feb 27, 2002

In all fairness, there are plenty of night people that consistently come in late as well. We have 12 hour shifts, 6:45 - 7:15. There is one night nurse that NEVER gets there before 7:00. THEN she has to get her stuff together, THEN she has to write. And boy, does she write! She gets her pad and writes EVERYTHING that is on the kardex (which is usually wrong) VERY slowly so she can be VERY neat, using three different colored pens and a highlighter. Only AFTER she has done all of that (which can take up to a half hour depending on the patient load) will she let us give her report.

So, you see, it can happen on either days or nights. I have worked both and have experienced both.

L.

PhantomRN · Feb 27, 2002

That would happen once to me........then I would write report to her and leave.

That behavior is jut rude.

MQ Edna · Feb 27, 2002

It IS rude, indeed. I made her just about explode the other day by asking if I could go ahead and give her report, BEFORE she wrote all her information down! LOL

Next staff meeting will address this general problem. I think things may change after that. Let's hope!!

I have asked to be allowed to tape her report, but I can't leave the floor until SHE is on the floor, so what difference would it make? I like the idea of a written report, though. But still, I'd have to wait. We'll see if anything changes after the staff meeting.

L.

night owl · Feb 27, 2002

Exactly! You let her do her thing for up to 30 minutes and she'll keep on doing it as long as you let her. I too would hand her a hand written report as soon as she walked onto the unit and then I'd leave. It's not only rude, it's ignorant and discourteous.

I wouldn't count on things changing either. It just seems that, "The more you complain, the more things stay the same." Management doesn't care about those trivial matters. If she had to pay you the OT you'd receive waiting for her, she'd change in a heartbeat! Now that might work...

numerouno · Feb 28, 2002

Well i have to say that there are people on both shifts that come in late. we only have two shifts we do 12 hrs. The rule is if you can't be ther on time at 7p or 7a then keep your mouth shut. If you don't like the assignment then get in on time it does work. You know my pet peeve? I hate it when the blood that is drawn on nights is constantly hemolyzed or drawn incorrectly. It occurrs at least daily anybody else have this problem?

As for nurses not adequately taking care of pts such as described is sad. I usually tell the person to thier face that something should have been taken care of . I also tell them when i see them what happened and the documentation i did and who i notified. I hate being like that but if some situations had been dealt with less Nursing time would be spent on trying to backtrack several hours and needless pt suffering would be avoided.

ChristyM · Mar 3, 2002

I work night shift on a busy children/adolecent psych unit. The nurse I relieve on 3-11 shift has only been working with us for about a month. When I got to work last night she looked rather

frazzeled She gave me a quick report, telling me that she had a very busy evening and hoped she had gotten all her work done.

(hoped :confused: ) She left within the next few minutes and I began doing nightly chart checks. I began to find order after order

that had been noted but not transcribed to the MAR!!!!! (Some of the orders had been written as early 5 pm) I couldn't believe what she had done or maybe I should i should say NOT done.

It took me the first 2 hrs of my shift to clean up her mess!!!!!!

frann · Mar 4, 2002

EArly as 5 pm, when I was working n ights, it was routine for me to note all the orders for the day.

Thank goodness for the secretaries hardly ever making a mistake.

EXOTIC NURSE, RN · Mar 5, 2002

My biggest pet peeve with the day shift on my unit is......night shift nurses have to do the EKG before we leave....I will first pass my 6a meds then do my patient care of the assigned pts I have for the night check all my iv patients and make sure they have fluids or a hanging waiting bag for day shift to plug and make sure my G-tube feeders have clean fresh bags and new dated material for the day. Do all my 6am BGM's and my charting then I will start the EKG's ....PLEASE DO NOT LET ME LEAVE ONE EKG for the day shift they will sh$t bricks!!!!! I have had to do up to 14 EKG's and I could have done all but Five and they have a fit. At one point it was decided that the night shift must help day shift with 8am BGM's (blood sugar monitoring) so we would have to do half of the BGMs for them at about 5a or 6a then they would cover them that was not safe or accurate I refused to do a scheduled 8am BGM at 5a or 6a that was ludacris......I outright did not do it at all so you know I was very much hated for that ....but I feel nursing is 24 hours so if I just happent to pass on something to be finsihed to dayshift as long as it is not putting the patient in danger or it is a habit or it is due to neglect or laziness on my part then shut up and do it because that is what nursing is all about 24 hour care.........(just my two cents.)

ratchit · Mar 5, 2002

Hey Numerouno-

I'm one of those night shift nurses who draws labs. And there have been plenty of times that I KNOW the blood was just fine but it got screwed up in the lab. It didn't make the batch, we call looking for results, they realize it's still sitting on the counter... "Ummm, it's hemolyzed." At one hospital I worked at, I started refusing to talk to the lab without a witness. EVERYTHING was hemolyzed or not received. Tubes I handed to the lab tech in the unit for just that purpose were "not received." Yes, they were- I HANDED them to Bob. "Oh, um, they were hemolyzed."

Happens a lot- everyone should know how to draw correctly, but the problem isn't always the nurse!

Lab Scientist · May 6, 2012

There's NO WAY you can know the blood was "just fine" after drawing it until it is spun down and visualized at that point. Hemolysis is the destruction of the red blood cell and it's contents spill into the surrounding serum/plasma. After centrifugation, the RBCs WBCs and PLTs are at the bottom and the serum/plasma portion is at the top.

The case you mentioned would be an out-and-out lie on the lab's part; either that, or the person to whom you were speaking was mistaken about the disposition of that specimen.

Of course, the problem isn't always the nurse; but it's not always the lab either.

Hey Numerouno-
I'm one of those night shift nurses who draws labs. And there have been plenty of times that I KNOW the blood was just fine but it got screwed up in the lab. It didn't make the batch, we call looking for results, they realize it's still sitting on the counter... "Ummm, it's hemolyzed." At one hospital I worked at, I started refusing to talk to the lab without a witness. EVERYTHING was hemolyzed or not received. Tubes I handed to the lab tech in the unit for just that purpose were "not received." Yes, they were- I HANDED them to Bob. "Oh, um, they were hemolyzed."
Happens a lot- everyone should know how to draw correctly, but the problem isn't always the nurse!

sauconyrunner · May 6, 2012

Indeed, there is always going to be a moment where something becomes a DSP, or a NSP. There are some legit DSPs- for example, it is 4 am, and granny needs to be returned to the ALF. All her family is out of state and no one at the ALF is answering the phone. I always understood that the night shift was not exactly going to find anyone to get her home and that I as Day shift would have a better chance of finding an awake person to arrange a ride, and if not, I would have access to a case manager.

But for actual patient care....when I have patients left with obvious bad care...I usually bring it up to the manager first before I "write it up" officially. I've had the good fortune to always work for a Manager who would actually investigate and try to help the other person with out the official write up. But if it needs a write up...write it up. We spend so much time emphasizing being nice and such that we sometimes forget we are Paid to take care of the patients.