This is NOT what shift report is about!

allnurses Guide · Oct 10, 2020

18 hours ago, turtlesRcool said:

I'm not sure where you're getting that from this thread. I haven't seen anyone calling anyone a bully for asking legitimate questions. There are people who ask for clarification or details because it's something basic they need to know, and others who ask to nitpick and criticize the offgoing nurse.

Asking, "when are his dressings due to be changed?" is non-accusatory and can prompt the nurse to say, "oh, I did those this morning, so not til tomorrow." Or say, "I wasn't able to get to them, but they're due today at some point." Asking, "did you forget to change his dressings?" is accusatory, as might be rolling eyes or sighing loudly if the task hasn't been completed. It's both about how the question is asked, and how the nurse responds to the answer.

Sometimes I find myself asking a bunch of detailed questions, and I'll stop myself and say something like, "I'm not trying to interrogate you here. If you know the answers, great, but if not I'll find them out." This is especially true when I ask about a patient's plan because discharges are on my time, but they're not something the night RNs have to deal with, so it's great if they know, but not surprising or blame-worthy if they don't.

What I mean is I have a nurse I follow who will say things like "This is a new admit so I don't know much about them." Understand this a an acute psych hospital and there is info I need to know before I go out on the floor. Even when this nurse admitted the patient there is a startling lack of information and when I ask for clarification I get "I don't know" or "That's what they said." Understand this nurse has been auditing charts and updating information such a labs, checking new medication orders etc..... I've had patient's that received emergency behavior meds the night before and this nurse can't tell me why, or what the patient's response was. Once I came into a ubtunded teenage patient and this nurse couldn't even tell me what had been given . When I checked the teen had been given 20mg of Zyprexa instead of the 5mg that had been ordered and that along with ativan and benadryl. "

I tried being polite and professional at first to no avail. Then I stated getting testy and then this nurse reported me to the supes for being a nully. So now I just put an hour or so each morning trying to figure out what's really happening rather than what was reported.

Rant over.

Hppy

Nurse GreenBean, ASN, RN · Oct 11, 2020

17 hours ago, hppygr8ful said:

Once I came into a ubtunded teenage patient and this nurse couldn't even tell me what had been given . When I checked the teen had been given 20mg of Zyprexa instead of the 5mg that had been ordered and that along with ativan and benadryl. "

Woah!

That nurse is very lucky that kid survived at all!