Nurse to Nurse shift report

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I work 11-7 shift on a 30 bed telemetry unit. My nurse to patient ratio is 9-10::1. 7-3 shift is usually a patient ratio of 5-6::1.

Our nurse manager has decided that due to the new HIPPA regulations, doing verbal report in the hallway is a violation of HIPPA. We started taping report this week. Everyone says it is taking to long.....about 60 minutes for all to listen to the entire floor report.

Any suggestions on how to improve the process?

We are used to doing verbal report at our med carts. I would generally have to give report to 3 or 4 nurses and then to the shift coordinator as well.

All of the staff is frustrated. Any advice?

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

Divide the unit into 3 sections (reportwise) and use 3 tape recorders to save time.

Instead of standing in line for report, go check your charts and briefly take a peek at your patients.

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Divide the unit into 3 sections (reportwise) and use 3 tape recorders to save time.

Instead of standing in line for report, go check your charts and briefly take a peek at your patients.

Angie,

Thanks for the suggestion. Anything will help at this point.

Kaseyrn

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We do verbal report in the NICU, but no families are allowed during shift change. In school on the units with recorded report, there was a shelf type thing with a slot for each bed number and each bed number had it's own tape. So when you got your assignment you went and picked up your 4-9 tapes.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Long Term Care.

On our Med-Surg unit, we only listen to report on our own patients (I work 3-11). If we leave the unit for a break or meal, a brief report is given to whoever's covering our patients. That seems crazy to have to listen to report for the entire unit-- It takes around 15 minutes to listen to our taped or verbal reports for our patient assignment. If I had to listen to report for an hour, I'd be behind on my work the entire shift. PLUS on 11-7, you'd be waking patients up to assess them even later than usual. UGH!

I'm sorry I have no advice except to try to convince management to allow you to get report only on your own patients.

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I work 11-7 shift on a 30 bed telemetry unit. My nurse to patient ratio is 9-10::1. 7-3 shift is usually a patient ratio of 5-6::1.

Our nurse manager has decided that due to the new HIPPA regulations, doing verbal report in the hallway is a violation of HIPPA. We started taping report this week. Everyone says it is taking to long.....about 60 minutes for all to listen to the entire floor report.

Any suggestions on how to improve the process?

We are used to doing verbal report at our med carts. I would generally have to give report to 3 or 4 nurses and then to the shift coordinator as well.

All of the staff is frustrated. Any advice?

I agree with the other suggestions. I work on a large surg/neuro/trauma unit with about 70 beds. We have the unit divided into 3 parts, each with its own report room. The previous shift tapes right before the new shift comes on and they hang out finishing stuff up until we come out in case there are any questions/updates. Report for us generally takes about 30 minutes. We do very brief verbal status reports to another nurse on our part of the unit before breaks.

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I work on a med surg floor and we recently changed the way we do report.

We have several tape recorders so each nurse gets a report on her patients taped a recorder with her name on it. It means the assignment for the next shift has to be done soon enough and people have to find time to sit down and tape, which I think is hardest on the day shift. But it sure is nice to come in in the morning, pick a tape recorder and get going.

Peggy

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