Signing off orders

[General E. Speaking, RN, RN]

Do you sign off your own orders or does your charge nurse do it?

Thanks

[SouthernLPN2RN, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

Do you sign off your own orders or does your charge nurse do it?

Thanks

In my experience, I have always done my own. Sometimes a day shift charge nurse would do it, but that was rare.

[gitterbug]

Both. Even if there was a charge nurse, I always took the time to go to the chart and initial the orders I was personally responsible for. I did allow myself 30 minutes prior to shift change to stop checking orders, so I could tape report, answer my lights, do the checking on the patients I needed to do. I tried to have water in the pitchers, make sure patients were dry, painfree, and breathing. Little things a nurse needs to do.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

If I was working the day shift, the charge nurse did it, if we had one. Otherwise, we signed off our own orders. I still checked all the orders in my charts and sometimes also noted them as well just to document that I had seen them. When I worked nights we signed off our own orders.

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

In my facility,, you write it you sign it. Doesnt matter what shift it is.

[burn out]

As far as I am concerned if you signed it then it is your responsiblity if it was or was not done if there is any problem it will come back to you. So say a charge nurse signs off for a UA and the cna forgets to collect it, then don't go yelling to the floor nurse or cna because it was the charge nurse responsiblity to see that it was done.

Also, if you do a 8 hour chart check after the charge nurse signed off the order then you are also accountable that all the orders in that 8 hours were carried out.