All I really want to hear in shift report is pretty much the basic patient info, precipitating reason for admission, areas of medical concern, meds & treatments, and current status.
I don't give a rat's rear if the reporter likes or dislikes the patient, thinks the patient acts like a two year old, or believes the hospital will not be reimbursed for services. (We just discharged a patient who had been there for 5 months.)
Ever get any useless information in your shift reports?
When we get to the history portion, Im always like why am I being told of something that beens resolved already or something from 10-15yrs ago?? Tell me RELEVANT hx that will affect patient care.
I like this because it just strains my nut to have someone ask question after question interrupting report, about 3 week old reesolved issues wanting date time,like a non issue IV discontinued over a week ago,......Question: what date,time,why,when ,where,how ?etc...
Its kinda of annoying when you have had the patient for the past two weeks, I tell them can you tell me what has gone on in the last 48 hours for BP, HR, stroke scale things like that then all I hear is about the family drama or they go into great detail about why they came in, well Dayshift, I admitted them two weeks ago I know why they are here get to the meat and you can go home.
Whenever the first thing out of the hander off mouth is "she's really nice" ? I know I'm in for a b.s report. Well Monday the pt got morphine...dude today is Wednesday and you work days, what did you do today.
Specializes in Float Pool-Med-Surg, Telemetry, IMCU.
I’m a float nurse who was being floated to another unit for my last four hours of work and I got stuck giving report to the most crabby, burned-out nurse ever. The ENTIRE report was punctuated by her litany of eye rolls and complaints.
I had an older gentleman with advanced lung cancer who in a moment of panic requested that his code status be changed from DNR to full code. It happens; most of us are scared of our own mortality, etc. I paged the MD and after confirming that was what the patient wanted the code status was changed.
I relayed this in report to the crabby nurse and she glared at me and said “people like that should be shot”. I smiled sweetly and replied “well then you’d have to code them, wouldn’t you?”
What type of jello/juice/pudding they prefer to take meds with, what side they sleep on, what ICU bed they came from, how rude the ICU nurse was giving report, they’re marriage status or sexual orientation, family members numbers that are already in the chart. And by the way, they’re grandson is a nurse here in the ICU, and they’re daughter is a resident at UCSF and wants to know the morning labs and xray/echocardiogram results and her number is ***~***~****.
The Res can call me.
I do like to know a lot of the info you mentioned. I know time is at a premium. No necessarily right or wrong way, I guess. I agree that a lot of it has nothing to do with the orders, plan of care.
Oh yes! All the time! Worse was way back when I worked in Saudi Arabia. They would tell all the details that aren't exactly needed in the treatment... even the teeniest laboratory value that isn't actually pertinent to the case and their hatred for the patient (ugh, talk about inappropriate). I get that they patient is uncooperative (normal for pediatric patients anyway) but dude, the shift report is taking too long because of the "special handover report".
When I have six or seven patients, I don't want to be bothered with even a five minute report on one patient. We only have one med room on the unit and I want to beat all the other nurses to the pyxis machine. The sooner I am out of report, the sooner I can get my day started.
I’m a float nurse who was being floated to another unit for my last four hours of work and I got stuck giving report to the most crabby, burned-out nurse ever. The ENTIRE report was punctuated by her litany of eye rolls and complaints.
I had an older gentleman with advanced lung cancer who in a moment of panic requested that his code status be changed from DNR to full code. It happens; most of us are scared of our own mortality, etc. I paged the MD and after confirming that was what the patient wanted the code status was changed.
I relayed this in report to the crabby nurse and she glared at me and said “people like that should be shot”. I smiled sweetly and replied “well then you’d have to code them, wouldn’t you?”
I never had trouble giving her report again.
Wow....she said a patient with lung cancer should be shot?
Only writing this because it just happened when leaving night shift... get the point of report! Be respectful of other people’s time. Its almost 730, Im ready to clock out and go to sleep so I can do this all over again in a few hours.
If you want to talk about the patient and other side chatter, save it for later. Get through report promptly so that the other nurses can give for the other patients. It was like 15-20mins that I waited that I realized that these two nurses were just chopping it up and barely got thru report. How inconsiderate is that?
" It's not if you win or lose, it's how you look playing the game."
It seems that some nurses believe if they talk a lot, then they worked hard or maybe it makes them feel important.
As my Hank Williams cartoon character once said, "If it cain't be said in a word balloon, it ain't worth sayin'!"
Many nurses I've worked with in private duty state the tasks they completed. Trach care, oral care, bed bath...I'm thinking, "yes, you did your job. But why do I need to hear this?" I only want to know if you DIDN'T get to those things or if you found something out of the norm while doing those things. Other than that. Good for you? Lol. I don't get it. Oh, then I go on shift and find things that would have been great to know in report. Such as being on the last box of gloves without having told the family so that I will have enough for my shift.
Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN
1,348 Posts
I like this because it just strains my nut to have someone ask question after question interrupting report, about 3 week old reesolved issues wanting date time,like a non issue IV discontinued over a week ago,......Question: what date,time,why,when ,where,how ?etc...