omg I forgot to give report!

Nurses General Nursing

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Hey fellow nurses,

So I am a new grad RN working night shift. I just came off orientation and am 3 weeks into being on my own. I feel like I am doing a great job, with the usual struggles of a new grad such as time management, which I am getting better at every shift. Of course, adjusting to night shift is a challenge, but as far as night shift itself, I love nights. The pace is more relaxed although still busy and I appreciate my amazing team of nurses who are so supportive and helpful. I have been embraced at my job; my girls rock. The other night was incredibly draining. (edit per OP request) In any case, there was miscommunication, but it got resolved. Meanwhile, I had 2 patients that were extremely demanding and I was bending over backwards all night trying to please them, which I did successfully. Near the end of my shift, I had an admit on the other side. I was running back and forth with no CNA and next thing I knew, it was shift change. I had 4 different nurses to give report to. I gave report to 3 of the nurses, did hand off, and left, utterly exhausted and desperate to sleep. On my way home, I had the sudden realization that I forgot to give report on my admit!! I called my unit, and gave report via phone. The nurse was very nice. I am so horrified that I did this! I actually lost sleep over it. Has anyone ever done this? I can tell you this: I will NEVER do this again, that is for sure.

Specializes in kids.

I bet you never do it again!

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Specializes in ED, School Nurse.
Oh lord, it's the stuff of nightmares! Seriously, I have nightmares where I've gone a whole night without so much as looking at a certain patient... or two, or three, or heck my whole load.

Same!! Although those dreams haven't happened in a while because I no longer work in a hospital. Man, I HATE dreaming about work- makes it feel like I never left the place.

I've never forgotten to give reports, but I have forgotten to give pertinent info during report. I called the primary nurse as soon as I realized it to update her on what I forgot to tell her. That's all you can do!

To the OP- you realized your mistake and called to rectify the situation as soon as you could. And I bet it never happens to you again.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Oh lord, it's the stuff of nightmares! Seriously, I have nightmares where I've gone a whole night without so much as looking at a certain patient... or two, or three, or heck my whole load.

Me too. I am in Professional Development now, but it took about eight months after leaving the floor to stop having this particular nightmare.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Hey! It could have been worse! You could have forgotten to give over the keys and you went home with them!!!

Think how many times we ask for the keys back so we can open the med room again for something or other. And then we drive home with the keys.

I commuted 1 hour one way. There were several nites I'd be on the road for 3 hours total because of those dang keys!

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Specializes in CMSRN.

First time it happened, the day shift forgot to give me report for my night shift. I laughed it off and she gave me report over the phone in her car while she was driving home. (this was before bedside report was required). I did the same to someone the following year and ended up giving report while driving home. It happens. Of coorifice both patients were self care, easy peasy which made them easy to overlook.

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Oh lord, it's the stuff of nightmares! Seriously, I have nightmares where I've gone a whole night without so much as looking at a certain patient... or two, or three, or heck my whole load.

When I was a floor nurse, I had that nightmare, too! And as a faculty member, I sometimes have a nightmare that I have forgotten to teach a class for an entire semester! I guess that is a riff on the famous student nightmare of forgetting to go to a class. :eek:

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Oh lord, it's the stuff of nightmares! Seriously, I have nightmares where I've gone a whole night without so much as looking at a certain patient... or two, or three, or heck my whole load.
We had a discussion on AN about this precise topic just a few weeks ago: https://allnurses.com/nursing-humor-share/wacky-nursing-dreams-1115775.html
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You may just find that you will do it again, we leave midnight shifts exhausted, with a lot on our minds. Uou went above and beyond to fix it, and that's what matters. You'll come up with your own routine as you gain more experience, and you'll have a mental checklist to help you with things like this. Take a breath, dust off your shoulders, and know that you're doing great!

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I once didn't know i was assigned a patient until mid shift when the lab called about an abnormal report, to which I denied having said patient until the charge nurse corrected me. Our assignments were changed and I clearly was not in that meeting, so the morning nurse had given report already to the other nurse who took the report because at that time she didn't know the assignment changed either, and she then told said morning nurse to give report again to moi...which never happened.

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I'm more glad that your coworker didn't throw you under the bus on missing report.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

No, but I still have dreams about this. I also have dreams about discovering at the end of the shift I had a patient I didn't know about - never set foot in their room, or even laid eyes on, let alone assessed. OMG.

When I worked night shift I often woke up in total blackness and looked at the clock on my nightstand to see for example: 11:17. I'd then leap out of bed (heart hammering) freaking out, thinking it was 2317, not 1117. In my half awake/alert state I thought I had over slept! This happened more than once ...

I haven't done bedside nursing in 15 years (I do telephone triage nursing from home now) and have since managed to add to my nurse dream data base orificenal:

1). Broken computer issues (as in breaks apart in your hands broken) ...

2). The inability to accept incoming triage calls without a way to alert my supervisor so it shows up as "agent not answering" ...

3). And just old plain leaving/deserting my desk/phone/computer post due to some other major catastrophe closer to home - only to realize with horror what I've done, and return to find it is now the end of the shift!

I have to wonder what these kind of dreams says about the state of my subconscious mind? Never mind, I don't think I want to know the answer to that question.

I seem to recall that in bedside nursing just about anything and everything could potentially happen - especially when things are extra busy (I say "extra busy", because busy is the norm).

Don't be too hard on yourself - it sounds like it was a crazy shift. Even seasoned nurses with decades of experience make mistakes. Plus, you called and gave report anyway - it's not as if you completely forgot and they had to call you and wake you up to receive report.

I can't help but think that if this happened to me as a new grad I would have had to wait to call from my house landline, or turn the dinosaur I was riding around and go back - we didn't have cellphones (and only 5% of the population had home computers) when I graduated in 1993. :laugh:

Perhaps get a red marker and make a diagonal line through all patients you've given report on so you know for sure before you leave.

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I've never forgotten report. However, my husband I have both forgotten the keys more times than I can count. We always had a commute of over an hour, too. :banghead:

Lesson learned, you won't do it again!

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