I HATE CHANGEOVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Nurses LPN/LVN

Published

Specializes in LTC.

the changeover from feb to march was a tragedy! each full time nurse has an assigned set of mars to do each month which means that regardless, if you have a set you are responsible for getting it done...the most you will have is 8. it doesnt take long to do 8 vs 80. welllll, at a meeting the don informed everyone that if they were off during the changeover days then they didnt have to worry about doing their own mars, that the night shift would do it for them...ummmmmm no! i did my 8 + 40 something more and ended up missing some orders on my own set. i absolutely will not do that again. i came in on my days off to work on other nurses stuff....thats a load of crap. and its not fair. its by far the worst changeover ive had in years. i have full intentions of letting the don know that i wont do it like this again when i get a chance. im on third shift now so i dont see anybody anymore. does anyone have any suggestions to make it smoother? there are some things i know i can do in advance and have it ready for a few more changeovers. aside from the most obvious ( everyone needs to do their own) what else might help?????

I used to do around 65 MARs every month just for my unit. I however, enjoyed doing changeover. The night supervisor would schedule me extra so I could go and do the busier units. I would suggest to tread lightly. With jobs the way they are, you don't want to risk losing one over something as trivial as changeover.

What you could do is request the day off when changeover is to be done.

Specializes in LTC.

well, its the point of it....xyz people have responsibilities for x amt of mars and they chose not to bother to do theirs because it was made clear to everyone that it would be thrown on someone else...me. The only reason nobody bothered was because of the boss's comment...before everybody made the effort to do their own. I dont see a termination for refusing to do more than I can handle seeing as how the majority of the staff in general barely shows up for work...no calls no shows, repeat call ins, slack job performances.....in the near future. Too much gets pushed under the rug and ignored. My thinking is...if you intend to designate certain responsiblities to your staff, then it must be followed through...you cant just up and say ..oh dont worry about it someone else will pick up your slack its ok. ....to me...thats just a recipe for disaster. ahh....I guess my expectations are just too high.

One facility I worked at made out assignments for each night shift nurse to do x number of MARs at the end of the month. When that was started, no one person had to do them all the time every month. But whoever did work for changeover had to go over the MARs to make sure everything was transcribed and correct. Still found a lot of errors though. Some people just have no work ethic anymore. They want to collect the money and not work for it. Sorry...just had to rant on that. Have a good one!

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

We recently changed our MARS. The MAR starts on the day that the pt was admitted so if they come to us on the 15th of the month then it is changed over the 15th of the next month. This eliminates having to do massive amounts of new MARS at the end of the month.You just have to whatever is due very few days, the RN on nights makes a note of which ones are coming due when she does chart checks.

Sasha, I feel your pain --where I use to work, night shift had to do all the checking mars and change over, I always hated it, and was never very fast at it, ( the order checking, changes ect..) It was expected, and also expected to do your routine work also, ( I think each side had like 60 plus residents) , and It was always night shift who had to come in early on the change over night to change meds over. They need to change that, not sure how!? but It was not easy for me, I never thought it was fair, and I got off the night shift-not just for that reason. but that was a big reason!

Specializes in LTC.

Wow changeover per admit date now that's a whole new idea how well does that work out? I told the boss today in a meeting that each should start their own assigned mars instead of pushing it on one person or one shift our night shift is busy as it is I wish it was all on computer

The best way I have seen it done was to have a nurse from each unit come in for a night and just work on Mars. Pay the extra hours and have some one do them! We have tried giving assignments to nurses, but it has not worked ( they have admissions and critical pts.) So, give up the money and pay your nurses to come in and do them! Less errors, less stress, less money.

I just started a job working night shift. I feel like a zombie trying to adjust to the shift, then they inform me that my shift does the changeovers for the facility....I almost fell asleep sitting there looking at all those orders for that long last night! My eyes were starting to cross. It is not a fun job and wow can it be easy to miss things when you have so many to check. I'm just glad it's only once a month. :)

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Changeover per admit date works great. The gals that work nights really like it.

Specializes in Latest interests: Hospice Home Care.

well, somebody finally spoke up about this dreaded task!

here's my problem. i work in corrections. needless to say - we hand write all the mars. hand write! :mad: how ancient is that?

inmates come and go almost as much as patients in the hospitals. they either get transfered to another pod or they are released.

it's april 4 and i still have one book that's not done. agency nurses come and go like grand central station. they are not responsible for any paperwork generated for changeover.

i am responsible for 5 books with an average of 50 or so inmates. demographic information (although brief) is hand written for each and every inmate as are all orders. and those orders are in a state of flux, depending on the individual response to their medications. i never imagined in my wildest dreams that working corrections would entail the enormous paperwork trail that goes into each and every inmate seen by a crnp, doctor, or psychiatrist. and the psych meds are something to behold. they have such a neat coctail of meds that most of the inmates are what i call "chemically restrained" to a certain degree. if any ordinary person consumed the type and amount of these psych medications - that person would be knocked out for a week!!!

during the course of hand writing each and every mar - we also are on the lookout for expired orders. another piece of paperwork is generated to list the name, pod, doc number, and the date the medication expires along with a list of all the meds.

as a result of doing this type of thing for the past 4 years, i think carpal tunnel has taken over my right wrist and arm. anybody else out there still handwriting the mars, orders, and handwriting all the requests to reorder those expired meds???

maybe i'm in over my head, but i have spent hours upon hours doing changeover. i start my shift at 2:30 in the afternoon and during changeover, i'm lucky if i get out of jail before 2:30 in the morning! i need a change!!! bedside nursing is sounding pretty good right about now.

thanks for letting me sound off!!! anybody with ideas or similar work style, i'm listening!!!

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Ours are handwritten as well.

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