Shift B.S.

[firstyearstudent]

I got a late admit yesterday and after running my butt off to do as much as I could for the next shift, during report, all the next nurse did was focus on the one thing that I did not do (change the caps on the PICC line). I left a half hour late which is already going to get me into trouble with the manager.

You really get squeezed here -- the manager comes down on you if you get overtime and the night shift nurse berates you. I'm sick of it. How would you handle this? My guess is to just smile and shrug during change of shift and say, "I really tried my best to get as much done as I could. I'm sorry that you're not satisfied with that."

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

I had four new admits on noc shift last night. I ended up punching out at 0900 instead of 0730 and never took a lunch break.

The day shift nurse made a face when I was done with report. I asked if she had any questions, she said no. The look on her face continued. I looked her in the eye and said "I can tell there is something you don't like that I did or didn't do. Oh well" And then I walked away.

probably not the most professional thing to do, but she got the point.

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

Never apologize. That implies that you made a mistake. Many people forget that the hospital is a 24/7 ship. Crap happens. They'll get over it.

exactly.. that is why we work shifts. No one person can do it all alone.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

You can only do what you can do.

I do agree with the person who mentioned that it does get tiresome when you know, based on who you are following, what kind of shift you are going to have. I am not saying that YOU are that kind of nurse, but do know that those nurses are out there, and they can really sour things for the rest of us that do our best, and occasionally do have to pass things on nevertheless.

I don't know if it works this way at your facility, but in some places, certain things are assigned to certain shifts. The bowel care protocol is one example that comes to mind. In the facility I work at, the bowel care protocol has specific steps to be handled by specific shifts. For example, the evening shift nurse gives the senna at HS if the patient has not had a BM for 2 days. The day shift nurse is supposed to follow up and give a suppository in the am if the senna did not produce the results. I cannot tell you how often I'd have patients mentioning to me AT BED TIME that they have not had a BM for 3 days. Like I'm going to give them a suppository at bed time????? Like I'm going to call the doctor for an enema at ten o clock at night???? Yeah, I know day shift is busy, but the suppository and the calling of the physician needs to happen in the daytime.

Cap changes are different because they can really happen any time, though you might not want to be doing it at 3am when the patient is sleeping. What it means for the noc shift nurse is that they have yet one more thing to squeeze in before HS, because at HS, the focus is on HS care and getting the patient a good nights' sleep. You really don't want to be going into the room and waking the patient all night long for things that could have been done when they were awake earlier in the day.

Now, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here. I am in agreement that if you're doing your best and not intentionally leaving loose ends out of laziness, then it's their problem.