Stage fright and report

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I've always dreaded public speaking and am not gifted at oral presentations, including report. Sometimes I'm more discumbobulated than other times. I always feel as if I left out something major, or just made a fool of myself. My coworkers are tolerant of me. Sometimes I'm better, and more organized with my reports, I don't know what makes the difference.

Often I feel true stage fright when I approach the time for me to speak.

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Actually put aside a few minutes to really plan what you're going to say. My reports are much more complete and concise if I have written down the points I'm going to hit. Mostly I just put stars on my brain sheet right before I give report. And if there's something in my real brain that I know I want to cover, I go ahead and write it on the sheet so I don't forget it. If I don't take a couple minutes to do this, I'll forget things until I've already moved two patients down. Which I'm sure is quite annoying to my coworkers!

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I hear ya. Just early this morning I had to give an oral report to all of my coworkers because things had gotten hectic on the unit and I didn't have time to tape the report an hour before everyone arrives, like I usually do. So, talk about stage fright!

At my old job, I usually only gave a face to face report to one person, but sometimes I had to give to more than one person, such as nursing students, orientees, etc.. and yeah, I'd get that stage fright, especially when giving report to someone who likes a TON of details.

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Specializes in Spinal Rehab (2yr), neuro,currently ICU.

one nurse taught me a trick during my first clinical ever in a surgical unit, using the ABC(not to say that sometimes i dont get all shaky and forget what i was going to say especialy when i have someone who is like so good with los of experience). i always state what i did for my patient on that shift.

Pt Name, age, doctor

reason for admission

Airway

Breathing

Circulation(including vitals and medz)

IVC( what is running, time started, what arm etc)

wound(location,is the dressing to stay intact etc)

output(vomiting, IDC, drains)

are they independent or full assist

doctors orders?? lab results??

whats not been done yet???

family visited etc?

and yes, i scribble on my handover sheet so that i do not forget.....coz its easy to forget.then it just amazes me how some RN's and EN's just read the pt name age and tell it all from their heads without missing a thing!! i guess its experience

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You can really learn alot by listening to nurses give report..others may notice things or assess thing differently . I remember one time this particular nurse said in report that the patient was in NSR on the monitor,blood pressure was low, and she didn't know why but she couldn't get a pulse anywhere on this patient. The second I got out of report I went to check on this patient who now was unresponsive, agonal resp, low sats. no pulse but NSR 84 no ectopy on the monitor..sure enought the patient was in EMD and was being coded when the other nurse walked out the door to go home. We busted out buns to keep this patient going until her only brother could come from out of state to see her before she officially died.

One thing that really ticks me off in report is when you have had a heckit shift and you are telling the on cominig shift what didn't get done and they give you this disgruntled look and ...roll their eyes. I would love to smack the you know what out of them.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

This is why we've gone to written Report. Of course, we all hang out to give a quick verbal update on certain patients, but most of the basic info is written down for us.

My suggestion would be to write up a form, such as spicey queen outlined above, and take a few minutes as you see your patients to fill out the basics, then just read it to the oncoming nurse, adding comments as you go.

After awhile, you develop a system and it just flows much easier that way.

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Specializes in Lie detection.
i've always dreaded public speaking and am not gifted at oral presentations, including report. sometimes i'm more discumbobulated than other times. i always feel as if i left out something major, or just made a fool of myself. my coworkers are tolerant of me. sometimes i'm better, and more organized with my reports, i don't know what makes the difference.

often i feel true stage fright when i approach the time for me to speak.

all the suggestions here for report are great... as for public speaking, thats a tough one.. this may sound corny and its not an immediate solution and involves some time and $ on your part but is well worth it, i think.

as part of my bsn program, it was required we take a speech class(or oral communication). now i has already been a nurse for 5 yrs when i went back for my degree and thought i was confident enough in my speaking skills and figured this class was just "fluff". was i ever wrong!

it was a great class, taught me a lot about public speaking, presentations and such. also how to organize what you want to say so it is concise and informative. i was really shocked at everything i learned. even though i don't have stage fright, there were a lot of people in the class that did and i could see as the semester went on how much they improved. after taking it, i understood why it was a requirement for all degrees.

anyway, just a suggestion...

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

When you organize your papers for report this is what I do:

I find a nearly empty page on my kardex.

At the top of the page is

Pt name

age

admit dr

diagnosis

allergy

a&o x?

cardiac (sr? pulses? edema?)

lungs (sounds? o2? sat?)

iv site and fluids or s/l

bowel sounds last bm

foley? voids? bsc?

accucheck frequency? last result? sliding scale or no?

skin open areas? treatments? dry? fragile?

activity ad lib? 1 or 2 assist?

short history

today's procedures, tomorrows planned procedures, labs, npo? Any pertinent new orders

Then I say any questions? I read it all of the page in order of systems pretty much and it covers most things.

Actually I write down the side of the page when I TAKE report this way, and just update it later on.

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Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

Giving report for a newbie can be scary. I took my cues from the more seasoned nurses I was giving report to by the questions they asked. It's a skill, just like other areas of nursing. You give yourself time to grow into it. You will find what method is comfortable for you. As an ICU nurse, I found it easiest to give report by system starting from head to toe. After several months, I was able to shorten what I wrote and spoke more from my experience with the patient using my report sheet more as a reference than a narrative.

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I'm not a newbie, btw. I still have stage fright when speaking though. My nursing program had oral arts as a requirement for a pre-req. I think I'll make a more organised sheet to refer to. Part of my problem is just fear of speaking, I'm not sure if my reports are less adequete than others since I'll find thing missing from other nurses' reports after I assess the pt.

I work in the ICU/CCU of a small hospital and we do report all together, usually 2 nurses going off and 2 coming on. We have the charts in front of us and often refer to our charting, VS sheets, labs as we report.

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Specializes in Medical.

GardenDove you have my sympathy. I dread taped handover. Face to face I am fine with. Taped; I trip over my words, say everting in big long sentences, and take huge gasping breathes. I had the very unfortunate experience of listening to part of a taped handover I had done. The look on my face was so priceless the room burst into laughter. I could hear the paper shaking in my hands! I sounded awful. The others had a laugh with it, they know I am not the best when taping, but I still get embarrassed.

Try not to think that you are any less adequate than the other nurses. If you think your report is not good enough, or you are going to forget something chances are you will (because your more worried about making an eror)

I try to keep my reports brief, if I am taping then the briefer (sp) the better!

Go figure, I can lecture to a room ful or nurses, but cant give a taped handover without feeling like a real dope :sofahider

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