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

[3dayRN]

The nurse I'm talking about is not a new nurse. She's been a nurse longer than me. I don't think she would appreciate me giving her pointers on how to give report. I also can't redirect her to keep on point because I don't get report from her. We work on the same shift. The problem is when she is giving report to dayshift and I have to give report to the same nurse I am stuck just sitting there waiting for her to get done. She just goes on and on and on...........NO ONE likes getting report from her or waiting for her.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Instead of changing her, can you change the system? We are going through this right now at our hospital. We had those that were very long winded and those that gave such a short report, you missed critical information.

We came up with Plan A and Plan B. The latter will be instituted once we change our shift times.

Plan A is everyone use the same report sheet. Toward the end of the shift, the nurse fills out this sheet. It is not to be deviated from. The on coming nurse is to NOT interrupt the nurse. This has worked well and some nurses actually thanked the committee that came up with this because they had an idea on what to say.

Once we change shift times in a few months, we will go to walking rounds. You can really cut a report time down to minutes. The oncoming nurse can see the patient so a lot of questions can be answered visually. Secondly, you don't gossip in front of patients.

I did walking rounds at my previous hospital and loved them.

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

Can you post a link to the report sheet? I'm curious what info is on it. Sounds like a good idea. :)

[smily nurse, BSN, RN]

outcome oriented report... and tape report!!!! start the tape on time. oncoming staff asks ? at end of tape!!!! outcome oriented is imp..... no need to repeat anything out of the ordinary!!!

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

It took over 45 minutes for me to listen to a taped handover one day, and I gave up. I had to leave to take a patient down to the GI Unit and I hadn't even finished getting handover. I told the shift coordinator it was waaaay too long - you only need to give basic and relevant details. You just cannot hand over EVERYTHING - it's not practical.

Get your NUM/NM to talk to her - it's management's problem as far as I'm concerned.

You can also jog her along during handover in a nice way, such as, 'We know all the patien'ts history we don't need to go into that - what changed this shift that was relevant?' If you KNOW the patients, you need to tell her not to hand over everything, especially if it is all written on your hand over sheet. If info isn't on a hand over sheet, then get the unit secretary to do one everyday - that is what we have here. It saves a lot of time with handing over patient name, medical history, diagnoses, info that happened that day, etc.

Just keep pushing her along - she will eventually get the message. But you need to tell the NUM to talk to her.

[steelydanfan]

outcome oriented report... and tape report!!!! start the tape on time. oncoming staff asks ? at end of tape!!!! outcome oriented is imp..... no need to repeat anything out of the ordinary!!!

The same person who is disorganized and rambing in person is the same way when taping.

Use SBAR and if the person is just incorrigable, go down the list FOR them, and get your questions answered.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Can you post a link to the report sheet? I'm curious what info is on it. Sounds like a good idea. :)

It is something that our committee of floor nurses came up with. I can grab a sheet at work and pm you the info.