I just graduated as an ADN and am working as a "nurse tech" until I take the NCLEX. Throughout school and since I've been working in this position, I've seen nurses give report many times. In this time, I've yet to see any discernable pattern for how to give report or what information needs to be conveyed.
It seems to me that you would want a standard format but I've yet to see it.
Cleveland Clinic system seems to think the same way as they have (within the last year) tried to get the nurses to give report using the "SBAR" system (adopted from the Navy). SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, Reccommendation. As far as I've seen, the nurses just toss the SBAR forms aside and continue to do however they feel is best.
The really funny thing to me is that, with all the charting nurses do, you would think that the nurses charting would form a basis for giving report. After all the nurses chart is supposedly a chronicle of what has gone on with that patient over the last 8-12 hours right? But I've NEVER seen the patients chart used in giving report.
Now I'm just a new grad so what to I know but it seems like giving report could be more organized and standardized. What I've seen looks to me like a relatively ineffective nursing ritual rather than an actual conveyance of relevant patient information.
What do you experienced nurses think about all this?
