Giving report - experienced nurses make you feel foolish

willdgate · Oct 23, 2006

In my short time as a RN, I believe being a RN is not a profession b/c of how nurses treat each other, rarely do you see or hear of a doctor talking down to another doctor. Until, some nurses respect nursing, nursing will cont. to be looked down on my doctors and other healthcare professionals.:angryfire

Humbled_Nurse · Oct 25, 2006

I think some of this type of behaivor goes on everywhere to some degree. I tend to be one of those laid back nurses and don't get in a fluff about much. Nursing is such a huge profession with all sorts of personalities and the majority of nurses are women and when you get a lot of women together in a work place this type of behaivor is bound to happen. Also nursing is a stressful career even for the most experienced nurse and the worst can come out of people when under stress. It would be wonderful if more men would get into nursing so we can balance out some of the hormones

As a new nurse you are more likely to be a victim to this type of behaivor. Just keep your head up and do your thing. Once you gain the respect of your co-workers then they will find someone new to attack.

Hang in there!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Oct 25, 2006

Frustrating, isn't it? I've experienced something from everyone's posts, actually: those who want to know every detail you just don't know or even CARE about, and those who aren't interested in hearing about the unstable patient who's about to crash unless someone takes note NOW.

My personal favorite, though, is the charge nurse who questions every detail of what you did that shift, every minute aspect of patient care, and you want to scream "I was buried with unstable and psycho patients all night, meds and blood transfusions, rectal bleeds and charting, we're permanently understaffed so the load is too high for everyone, didn't have time to PEE in the last 9 hours let alone get my half hour dinner or 2 15 minute breaks (ROFL), you said you'd be available to help me since I'm new and yet stared at me like I was a MORON when I DID ask!! And now you demand to know what Patient X's temperature was at 2 am when that ISN'T a problem?!?"

But you don't

EmerNurse, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2006

I have to say I remember when I was a very new nurse HATING giving report to one more experienced nurse because she asked me all sorts of things and I often got the "don't worry about it, I'll do it" with what sounded like a resigned sigh.

Later after I had some reasonable time under my belt, this nurse became one of my favorites and a good friend. Turned out, a lot of what she wanted to know was for a reason and I learned A LOT. This nurse always had her ducks in a row and her patient care was top-notch, so instead of getting upset when she asked questions, I acted the new nurse and asked her, why do you want to know that - is there a reason that's important to my patient care? (asked in an honest way - and many times there was a real good reason).

On the other side, I asked a new nurse what the vitals were on her patient who just got put in the bed. She told me the BP and when I Asked the HR, she said she didn't know yet, the patient wasn't on the monitor yet (???). .

Hoozdo, ADN · Oct 25, 2006

My personal favorite, though, is the charge nurse who questions every detail of what you did that shift, every minute aspect of patient care, and you want to scream "I was buried with unstable and psycho patients all night, meds and blood transfusions, rectal bleeds and charting, we're permanently understaffed so the load is too high for everyone, didn't have time to PEE in the last 9 hours let alone get my half hour dinner or 2 15 minute breaks (ROFL), you said you'd be available to help me since I'm new and yet stared at me like I was a MORON when I DID ask!! And now you demand to know what Patient X's temperature was at 2 am when that ISN'T a problem?!?"
But you don't

I suggest you DO TELL the charge nurse this once you have a few months under your belt. Don't let this kind of behavior go on; it is unacceptable. If you want to be more polite and take care of it NOW, just ask her "and how is pt temp at 2 AM relevant to anything I have told you in report, please clarify that for me - am I missing something?"

I have found that method to be helpful. Maybe there is something you are missing the relevance of. If it is not relevant, maybe it will occur to her that she is bullying you.

truern · Oct 28, 2006

My personal favorites are the nurse that barely acknowledges my report and gives me the "Run along now...the REAL nurse is here" attitude and the one that nitpicks and drills me until she finds *something* to nail me on.

Don't get me started on the nurses that find a nice supply of dressing supplies, IVFs, etc I've left in the room for them and what do *I* find the next morning?!? Yeah, not even a single gown left in the isolation cart and nada in the rooms. Sigh.

Indy, LPN, LVN · Oct 28, 2006

Okay. One year in and I can see in myself the urge to nitpick on others' reports. Bleh. There's a person or two that - they aren't any newer than I am- their reports are so far below substandard that I almost wish they wouldn't tape it. Really. So for these special people I limit my questions to specifics that I know are being left out, each time, that we actually do expect to know and pass on. Such as, telemetry readings have been... ?

I'm desperately hoping the people that leave this info out, will figure it out, after the nth time I ask them, or others ask them, that we need this info. I asked each and every person who was new after me, do you have a good "brain" and do you need one if you don't? I briefly explained the purpose of said "brain" as a tool for organizing both the shift, and the shift report.

Honestly, students have been more accepting of different "brain" formats than the new nurses I've encountered since springtime this year. One of our worst nurses to take report from, seriously blew me off with any advice I had for her, on her first day or two. Being nice sometimes seems to me, that it gets me nowhere. And I can't help trying to be nice.

So. I'd say, definitely try to learn from people that ask you questions about your report. Sometimes it'll be as simple as you missed something because you didn't know better, and that'll be the end of it. That's happened to me a couple of times. Also, try to know what you did and didn't do... as in, no matter whether it's day or night, the next shift really needs to know what is leftover that they need to focus on- before it's so late in the shift that they come close to missing it as well. Such as, Hi I admitted this patient an hour ago and I know x, y, and z about the plan for the patient and did this about it, but you need to take off orders. That's a good way to alert the next nurse that 1- no time to do it all on this one, 2- you did glance at the orders so you have a clue, and 3- what they need to do.

One thing that makes me itch is people who read the MAR's or admission form to me. Eep. I can read. Tell me, if there's a new med that I need to know about before I have time to look at the MAR, or what the drips are, but otherwise... if it isn't outstandingly different or unusual, no need to read the MAR. Of course there are some old school nurses who read the MAR and consider it a perfectly acceptable way of reporting, but I've worked with them and I see through that. In my mind if that's all I get from any nurse, I'm thinking they actually don't know jack about their patient.

Ok. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, and seen a little from the picked on, and the oh-god-I-wish-that-nurse-would-give-a-decent-report side of the fence, by all means take the other posters' advice and don't let people interrupt your report or make you feel bad more than once about the same thing. There are some people you truly can't please.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2006

I get it too.

Just wanted to throw this out there--if you feel that you can go into a room, empty a urinal of 225 mls of urine, and come back to quibble about which shift to chart it on....you ARE nitpicking.

Yes, it actually (almost) happened. Because I was done, I had charted, and I was soooooooooooo outta there.