"Can I give you report?"

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I was working the second 8-hour shift of my double yesterday, and the second shift was on a different floor than my first was. I am a CNA. I received report from the outgoing CNA which was filled with "She is a nice lady" and "he is okay." (Not what I needed to know, but thank you). I find the supply room and all other rooms I will be needing, and start in on patient care for my section (was very heavy, 15 pts which most of were not independent).

As I'm coming down the hall, a nurse who I met briefly 20 minutes prior, asks me "Can I give you report?" In my mind my first reaction was "huh?" But of course I responded with a proper "Yes absolutely."

The nurse tells me which patients of mine are hers also, lays out their needs and all that needs to be done for them by me, important conditions and considerations, and exactly what she needed from me if out of the usual "routine."

This may sound strange to some of you that I've dedicated an entire post to something that only took this nurse

She was a seasoned nurse, very professional, serious yet kind, and a team player. I have had very great experiences with most of the nurses I have worked with, but none thus far have ever pulled me aside for a quick collaboration. I'm more used to getting called on my pager/phone throughout the day with piece by piece information or requests on patients. I understand nurses are very busy, I'm in nursing school and see more and more each day all of the things nurses need to do, to know, to see, to assess, to advocate for, to teach, to document, etc; But this really made for a smooth shift and facilitated great communication between the nurse and I.

Thank you for listening. (PS, I know if you're not a nurse yet your username is not supposed to contain nursing credentials in any fashion, but did not know this when I originally signed up and don't know how to change it).

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It's something I will admit I haven't always done but I have incorporated it into the start of my shift for the past few years. Not sure why I took so long to do it because it does set up the shift to go smoothly.

Glad you had a positive experience. I'm sure the patients appreciated it too.

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Better late than never! :up:

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One of the acute care floors I worked on had a policy of nurses giving report to CNAs with a deadline before 10 AM, it made patient care sooooo much smoother. More hospitals need to implement this. It takes less than 5 minutes and can really make a difference for coordinating needs and patient safety.

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Most cna's see their job separate from the nurse she is working with. I am going to copy and paste your post to my personal notes. Thanks for sharing this.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
The nurse tells me which patients of mine are hers also, lays out their needs and all that needs to be done for them by me, important conditions and considerations, and exactly what she needed from me if out of the usual "routine."

This may sound strange to some of you that I've dedicated an entire post to something that only took this nurse

Not strange at all! It's a ray of sunshine! Honestly, I've always felt it important to balance those 'I will never be that nurse (bully, laterally violent, cannibal) along with "I want to be just like that nurse". Often it is seemingly minor things that matter most.

After all these years I remember nurses such as the one you described who teach by example. The rest I've forgotten.

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We get report every shift for every pt on the floor (less than 10 min). The charge, aides, and nurses all sit in on report. Then we get more specific reports on our assigned pts and oncoming aides get report from aides going off shift. I love getting report this way because inevitably at some point people help with pts assigned to someone else.

So so glad you had such a great experience!!

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I always get report from the nurses after the CNA's give me report. 9/10x, the CNA report is wrong.

Always ask your nurses for report and anything important/different/special you'll need to know. Especially if you are on an unfamiliar unit.

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I would've like that when I was an aid and now think it would help a lot on my unit now. I think most of the aids would like it too.

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

This is the expectation at my hospital. CNA to CNA report is not allowed other than the need to know stuff like how the patient transfers, likes to eat, have the door closed, etc. Sometimes it's helpful and sometimes it's not, really just depends on the team.

If you go into your user settings from a lap top (I can't get to it from my phone where I spend most of my time surfing AN) you should be able to tweak your stuff from there. ;)

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
(PS, I know if you're not a nurse yet your username is not supposed to contain nursing credentials in any fashion, but did not know this when I originally signed up and don't know how to change it).

I might be wrong, but I think your username is okay because it said "future RN", not "current RN" :)

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It's great to see you appreciate the effort for team work. I'm a new nurse and I've been thinking about approaching the CNAs about our patients and how to make our shift easier as a team. Since I'm new, I'm hoping they can point me in the right direction and make this experience a little less nerve racking !

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