Keeping the spotlight on behavioral issues

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We've had a lot of miscommunication on my unit for several months now. It seems that things come up in report or get handed on from shift to shift, but only certain people know for sure what's going on. There are some people who will come in early on a day shift to relieve a night shift mandate, it's good to know that stuff and have it written down.

We also have a few protocols written up for a few patients. There's a certain way we handle them due to assaultive, suicidal, stalking behavior, and stealing. We get staff floating into our ward on a regular basis, so it would be an easy way for the shift lead to get the new staff up to speed on what we're watching for on our ward.

I started taking notes in the intershift meeting specifically to write them up and pass the list to the day shift lead for review. Do we need this, is that too much, etc.

The kicker is that this is a state facility with a strong union. While that's great in some ways, having a guaranteed job for life even when you mess up really bad over and over... it's tough to motivate people to work more than the minimum. I might be branded as tough to work with if it's seen as trying to tell people what to do.

I want to tread softly here. If there's something on the list that isn't really that big a deal for one particular shift, then that's OK if the shift lead says to blow this or that off this shift, we need to think about only these few things.

What's a good way to work this into the day with the staff?