New handoff report- scared!

itsnowornever, BSN, RN · May 28, 2013

Practice doing it in the mirror, preface the report with "please hold questions until I am done with reporting on that particular patient"....

Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

Altra, BSN, RN · May 29, 2013

"This is a new system that we're all getting used to. Help me out and hold your questions on your specific patients until I run through everyone." And make people stick to that.

Gee whiz though ... why was this change made? This does not sound like something I would want on my unit.

Psychcns · May 29, 2013

Follow a format. Have your report ready early. Start on time. Hold questions till the end. I like taped reports for efficiency.

CodeteamB · May 29, 2013

I'm guessing that this is exactly the way I used to give report (does everyone type in their own report and then you read it?)

Don't let people badger you, if they are asking detailed questions to which you don't know, refer them to the previous shift RN (who should not be leaving until report is over) or the chart.

What I found annoying was people would want me to talk extra slow so they could write down everything I said, which was unnecessary as the content was saved to the computer system.

Once you get used to it it's ok, I prefer person to person report, but it is a vast improvement over taped report.

Georgia peach RN · May 29, 2013

I would do exactly what the above poster says

format - if needed make a cheat sheet - ask yourself what you would need to know if you were in each caregivers role

Start on time - great point you dont want to be giving report til 8 am or later neither do they want to be still getting report til then

Ask them to hold questions - interruptions just make it hard for you to maintain a train of thought you may very well be about to answer their questions if they would just allow you to finish.

If you start your shift preparing for report and as you work through your shift jotting down pertainate info, your report should write itself, and you will be ready when 0645 arrives (ideally)

lastly take a deep breath and just start talking

You will get better as you go

lilaclover6984 · May 29, 2013

"This is a new system that we're all getting used to. Help me out and hold your questions on your specific patients until I run through everyone." And make people stick to that.
Gee whiz though ... why was this change made? This does not sound like something I would want on my unit.

Yeah I like the idea of asking people to hold questions till the end. I think I will do that.

Yeah I'm not a fan of this change. I guess it was done to include the nursing assistants more but they end up not getting all the information that they used to get from a assistant to assistant report.

I have to to do it for the first time tomorrow and Im super nervous. I'm realllyyyy not big on public speaking ugggg

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · May 29, 2013

I don't know what idiot came up with that system, but there is no way that a charge nurse can give a report to the oncoming charge nurse to the level of detail that is needed for appropriate care. Charge is different from regular staffing. The "need to know" is different.

I see problems in that unit's future.

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · May 29, 2013

With all of the push for bedside report, I am not sure why this is happening to your unit, however, make your own "brain" specific to report. Check in with the nurses under your charge often, and ask what is perteniant to report. Then just go down the lines of your brain. Remeber SBAR, which is another thing that seems to be pushed as of late.

I do think that after each patient, you can say "is there any questions?" Then move on. A brain that works for me looks like a calender without the numbers. Each column going across has a different item--First block identifying information and why they are there, second PMH and allergies, 3rd pertainent test results, next what needs to happen with the patient still, and the last for notes and other things not covered. It can be kept on the computer and updated as needed for the next shift.

Some EMARS also have the ability to generate a 24 hour update. You could also go off of that with some notes added if needed. If it becomes apparent quickly that this way of doing things doesn't work well, then I wouldn't hesitate to say that to the NM. As a charge nurse, I would be curious as to what necessitated the change, and perhaps see what other options are needed. There's also a push to not have every nurse hear the whole report in some facilities. Another option would be that each nurse meets with you 1:1 for report. All of it is quite time consuming, and I imagine the goal is to have the off going nurses to not leave the floor for report, due to risk of falls or some other "marker" that is being watched....

lilaclover6984 · May 29, 2013

I don't know what idiot came up with that system, but there is no way that a charge nurse can give a report to the oncoming charge nurse to the level of detail that is needed for appropriate care. Charge is different from regular staffing. The "need to know" is different.
I see problems in that unit's future.

Exactly. What the charge needs to know in report is completely different from what the primary nurse needs to know and different again from what the NA's need to know.

Tait, MSN, RN · May 29, 2013

This is how an OB unit in my clinical rotations did report.

K+MgSO4, BSN · May 29, 2013

We do this on my ward. As the charge on the shift I get a relevant handover on all the pts clinical conditions discharge plans etc. After handover the nurses do a drug chart check to prevent the phone calls "did you give pt X drug Y?"

Then I and the other charge will run through what we need to talk about staffing issues difficult discharge planning etc

It means that everyone knows the same basics in all the pts so you don't have a nurse on break and noone know anything about the pt when they crash. Also it means the aides feel more of the team.