giving and getting report

[WSU_Ally_RN, BSN, RN]

I have just completed an entire summer at an externship and have returned to school for my last year. I was used to this summer, when giving/getting report, you sit down with whomever is getting your patients, and give them report face to face so if they have questions, you are there. You are there to go through nurses notes and dr's orders too, for a double check that you've done everything.

Now this quarter at school, I'm at a hospital that I've never been at before. Report there is on a tape recorder that all the nurses sit and listen to. The person that recoreded it is almost long gone by the time you get out of report, and not really wanting to answer questions.

How common is giving report on a tape recorder? What is the reasoning for doing it this way? To me it seems way unsafe!

[L&Dnurse2Be]

How common is giving report on a tape recorder? What is the reasoning for doing it this way? To me it seems way unsafe!

One hospital I work at does the tape recorder thing, the other is face to face report. I believe face to face is better since you can ask questions, look at chart together, etc.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

I would say that in most of the places I've worked the shift report has been taped. Offgoing nurses were not to leave until everyone came out of report. Often, the narcotic counts were not done and the keys passed on until report was over anyway so nurses were around to answer questions. A telephone call can be made if something important was left out of report. When a live report is listened to by all the oncoming staff it tends to drag on. Very few places did one-on-one face-to-face reports or walking rounds. Also, having been a nurse manager, you want all the staff to know what the major problems are that are going on with a unit in case someone has to do something for a patient other than theirs. Therefore, you want all the staff to hear the entire report for the entire unit. Oh, and as a nurse manager, I would go into the report room after I came in to work and was able to listen to the shift report as well, so I knew what had happened on the night shift.

[MadisonsMomRN, BSN, RN]

At my last job we taped. Sometimes we would give a verbal but it had to be taped so the other shifts could hear it.

[Chaya, ASN, RN]

We do face to face, which I prefer, except for night nurse who are allowed to tape b/c they might have to give report to 4-5 different day nurses and then the hosp. would have to pay them for this time...There is a rumor going around, however that we will no longer be allowed to tape- don't know if that would be JCAO regs or whatever.

[preciousmofo]

The only shift job I've had was med/surg and we taped. I liked the taping and listening because report went faster than verbals. With verbals you simply must talk about the patients' issues and there families and how much they annoy you, with taped, you listen and go on. But I do think JHACO is finding that to be a confidentiality issue now

[sweetielin]

when i first started, a taped report was given by the rn on each wing. now we do face to face reports. i prefer the face to face report. the lpn on each wing is also supposed to give report to the lpn taking that wing. the only problem is some of the lpns do not give you any report and i am often called out while the rn is giving report to count narcotics. this leaves me without any report. i have been trying to come up with a solution to this problem but have yet to do so.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

the only problem is. . .i am often called out while the rn is giving report to count narcotics. this leaves me without any report. i have been trying to come up with a solution to this problem but have yet to do so.

have you tried counting narcotics before report? i see a problem with that too, however, if a patient calls for a prn narcotic during report. the other suggestion i would make is to tape report as it is being given face to face so you can listen later. when i was a nurse manager i had reports taped. i would often go into the report room during the morning and listen to the taped reports from the other shifts.

[kadokin, ASN, RN]

Where I work, we try to tape, but give face to face if can't get taping done before next shift comes. It IS much more efficient to tape. Too easy to get distracted in face-to-face.