Handover

We're doing it, but there are a lot of people who don't see any value to it. Most of them grumble about how long it takes the next shift to get to the bedside to get their full reports, meaning that they don't get to go home for that many more minutes... I'm like you and feel that it's a good thing to at least have a clue as to what else is going on with the rest of the patients.

The format that our group report follows is pretty simple. We all gather in the staff break room. The charge nurse goes down the list of patients giving their name, age and diagnosis, followed by a short Reader's Digest version of the shift's changes. Then the important overarching things for the next shift are discussed, such as ORs on the slate, transfers in and out and any other important information that needs to be relayed. We've all been told that no matter how many kids we have on the unit, this report should take no more than 5 minutes. Which is fine if the last couple of hours of the shift have been quiet and the report sheets are coherent. But the way things have been going lately that's SO not the case! Our report sheets are divided up by system. Under CNS we have sedation/analgesia, prns, GCS, withdrawal scores, pupil reactivity and temp. CVS captures rhythm, rate, BP, CVP, LAP, pulses and perfusion, infusions and titrations, vascular access and pacemaker settings. Resp includes vent settings, sats, O2 therapy, breath sounds chest tubes and suctioning. I think you get the drift. For group report we only hit the highlights. The in-depth shift report between charge nurses goes on for some time after the bedside crew has left the room. Staffing is discussed here and any other charge-nurse issues are covered. It seems to work.