Getting Report

[VVCN2012]

Hi, Im in NP1, first semester of nursing. Today we had an exercise about getting report at the beginning of shift. Basically a student was given a list of things to pass on to another students including vitals, labs, pts info, etc. They timed us and the we were to count how many things (info bits) we were able to record or jolt down. We did ok, there were 19 bits of information we should have gotten, some got close to 19, others got 14, and some like myself got a lil more than required??? LOL I got 21, who knows where I got those 2 extra bits of info from....

Anywho, the point of it was, you dont have a lot of time to get report and you have so many pts to get report for, and they advised us to ask other nurses about what works for the, how do they save time. The nurses I've worked with so far, just get the pts profile and write on it, but the teacher mentioned that we can also make our own plan to make it easier where we just write down info as its been given to us. Do you guys have any pointers on how to make it easier to get report? What works and doesnt work for you? I've been using the pts profile to write report like Ive seen the nurses at the hospital doing, but I'm just learning, and I would like to learn other ways as well.

Thanks for your help=)

[pippylockstocking]

I always prefer if people wait to ask questions until the end or near the end. Because chances are they will answer your question before they finish giving report. If someone keeps interrupting, then it just takes that much longer. Plus it's kind of annoying, when they stop to ask you if the patient has an IV but you were just going to get to that part in your report.