How to deal with staff who blame you for stuff on their shift?

LubbDubb77, BSN, RN · Feb 7, 2021

25 minutes ago, DK123 said:

I work evenings 1500-2300.

I notice the night shifts always blaming evening shifts like they tell me "you always report that everyone is fine on your shift on your report, but how come on my shift (night) she had a Fever? she did not have a fever on your shift"?

and its like well I only worry about my shift, I don't go around worrying about anything else.

or stuff like "how come she is starting to be restless and yell now (during shift exchange)? did you not give her something to calm down? why do we always have to do it"?

they act like if a patient is crying out loud I have something to do with it.

I swear as a Nurse I never blame anything on anyone. If something happens on my shift I take the accountability and not blame the shift before mine as they are not there anymore.

I also think its a form of disrespect.

I think this is pretty common. It happens at my work too but we have pretty good communication, so, we talk about it openly. It would be good to address it in a nonconfrontational way and just discuss these things during report. Pts are not the same around the clock and can depend on the demographic that you are caring for as well. If the pt was not yelling on your shift or agitated, then why would you administer something for it? You wouldn't and shouldn't. After report if they want to go do that, they can sign for it.

I care for kids and my pts have different baselines during the day versus at night. So, I think possibly that could be where the confusion or misunderstanding is.

TheMoonisMyLantern, ADN, LPN, RN · Feb 7, 2021

1 hour ago, DK123 said:

I work evenings 1500-2300.

I notice the night shifts always blaming evening shifts like they tell me "you always report that everyone is fine on your shift on your report, but how come on my shift (night) she had a Fever? she did not have a fever on your shift"?

and its like well I only worry about my shift, I don't go around worrying about anything else.

or stuff like "how come she is starting to be restless and yell now (during shift exchange)? did you not give her something to calm down? why do we always have to do it"?

they act like if a patient is crying out loud I have something to do with it.

I swear as a Nurse I never blame anything on anyone. If something happens on my shift I take the accountability and not blame the shift before mine as they are not there anymore.

I also think its a form of disrespect.

It can be frustrating when shifts are pointing fingers at each other, one should always be open to what they're saying because sometimes it might be a valid concern, but many times it's just noise. However, if I follow a nurse whose patients are consistently complaining of pain or having agitation at shift change every time I follow them I do consider that pretty discourteous, because who wants to walk into PRN hell as soon as you clock in and try to get started?

I would encourage you to try to think about other shifts when you're working and try to set things up to where everything is good shape for the next shift. That being said, you can't control everything so sometimes you just have to let the complaints roll off your back.