How to get a nurse to give a quick change of shift report

[3dayRN]

There is a nurse at work that takes way too long giving shift report. So if I have to also give report to the nurse she is talking to I sometimes have to wait 20 minutes for her to quit talking. I know there are certain situations where a longer report is necessary because of problems throughout the night, or a more complex patient but not EVERY patient EVERY day. I also can't believe she has that much to tell because she almost never leaves the nurses station to check on her patients. The nurses on the other shift also hate getting report from her because they can't get started on their assignment. I have seen dayshift tell the night shift nurse to please not assign her to their group of paitents just so they don't have to talk to her. She's THAT bad. Should we go to the manager, I feel bad just telling her she talks too much. I don't see how she doesn't notice she is the last one giving report or that people are ALWAYS waiting for her to SHUT UP so someone else can give report to the nurse she is talking to. Maybe there's no hope

[notjustanurse]

If nobody ever tells her how is she ever going to know what the problem is? You all may *think* she should realize that she is annoying you, but she may think she is just being thorough.

[SkaterGurl]

You might need to butt in and say "Excuse me, I'm ready for your report if you don't mind." maybe that is all she needs, especially if she's just gossiping/chit-chatting with other nurses (which happens a lot). If she can't get her report together, jumps all over and is generally disorganized and takes forever for these reasons, maybe you could take her aside and in a very nice way, offer to help her?

[Orange Tree]

Oh my....few things irritate me more than nurses who give report like it's a free-association assignment for a creative writing class.

Mrs. Smith felt nauseous this morning and she vomited once. I medicated her with zofran and she's been fine since then. (fair enough) The vomit looked like it had a sort of red tint to it...like maybe it was something she ate ...or blood, I'm not sure. (I'm already started to get irritated). Well, they did serve some kind of red-colored soup for lunch ...and tea, too. The tea looked sort of red, I guess, but she didn't really like the soup so she didn't eat that much of it. She likes that other drink better than the tea, too.....the one that's sort of like a fruit punch. Her daughter said that she was going to bring her something else since she didn't like our lunch here, but I'm not sure if she did or not. She usually gets here while I'm eating my lunch, and sometimes she leaves before I get done so I don't see her. She likes to bring in food from restaurant x, have you ever eaten there? The daughter is nice and she loves to eat. She is always eating in there with Mrs. Smith and they like to cook, too. She said she won a baking contest once. I think it was for cookies, but I don't remember what kind of cookies she made. And on and on and on....

The first few times I got a report like that I just sat there with my mouth open in shock. Now, I cut them off in a hurry! Around the middle of the second sentence, I say, "Are there any significant assessment findings that have not been documented?" I keep going with very closed questions until I get the information I need. Then, I smile and say, "OK, good....let's move on to patient x." I try to be super-friendly and come across as not wanting them to trouble themselves. I do get "looks" once in a while, though.

[SharonH, RN]

I agree with cutting them off and asking pointed questions. Some people do not have the ability to be concise and get to the fricking point so you have to hear every single detail of their interactions with the patient as well as their fights with pharmacy, the docs and respiratory unless you cut them off. The long-winded among us won't stop their evil ways but they will stop when they are talking to YOU.

[shhhh]

I've been in your spot before. You don't want to be mean, but the longer it goes on, the more resentful you feel and unhappy it makes you. You have to be assertive and just tell it like it is, which can be hard.

When I worked on the floor, all of us dealt with a similar situation. One day, I needed to leave as soon as possible. So, I just butted in the conversation and said, "Sorry, but I'm giving him/her a really straight forward patient. Can I talk to him/her first?" She refused, so I said, "Well, I need to leave RIGHT at 7:30, and, honestly? When I have to give report after you, I spend a lot of time just waiting for you to finish because you take a very long time with your report." She was mad at me, but it seemed after one of us got the courage to say something to her, it wasn't long after that, she told everyone else what I said to her, and they all agreed with me to her face. I wasn't really trying to be a bully or a "mean girl" or anything, but I was just over it.

When it comes down to it, she's seriously racking up incremental overtime, giving such excessively long reports, and your manager wouldn't be too happy to know that it's because she's talking about things so unnecessary to patient care.

Someone's going to have to tell her what the deal is, otherwise she'll never know it's annoying. I always have preferred that if anyone has an issue with me, that they talk to ME first, instead of the manager, but if everyone there is too nervous to do that, it might be okay to address this with your manager, because the manager would be concerned about the overtime they're having to budget for. Good luck!

[Katie5]

Be firm and redirect her when she goes off a tangent.

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

I have the same problem with a nurse at my job. Sometimes her reports are 30 minutes ! Finally I went to her and said " You give a great thorough report but sometimes its too long and this makes our assignments start late" Well that DID not work. Her reports are still long. I even went to my supervisor and she did nothing. Often I have to redirect her to get report over with. My problem is the longer the report the less time I have with my patients and falls happen often during report.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

I try hard not to give report that is long, but I personally rewrite every report I give before the days come in. For me, this is how I don't miss anything. However, I try hard not to go off on a tangent too far unrelated to what I'm talking about. Perhaps this nurse is just trying to give a full picture?

however, if she's just going on and on about things that don't matter....then perhaps someone needs to speak up during the report and say "ok, how about this?" or "Anything major going on?"

[TickyRN]

Wow I had to deal with someone like this receiving report from me, I looked up and it was 7.50 and all the night nurses were long gone i was so ****** off. No one likes getting or giving report to her!!! next time i will set a timer for her.....

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I would say something. If that doesn't work, can the nurse manager and educator sit down with her and do an inservice on what's important in report?

I'm new so its something I still struggle with. I knew that one report was too long when the nurse said 'ok got it' and walked away while I was mid-sentence. Oops!

[annister]

Is she a newer nurse? I know it's annoying and it seems like different nurses want different kinds of reports. She may be insecure and worried that she will leave something out. Maybe someone should take her aside, not embarass her mid-report, and ask if they could give her some pointers on being thorough without being long winded. Some people tend to be anxious about giving report.