Useless Shift Report Information

[Davey Do]

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?

[guest974915]

Grrrrrrr-also a major pet peeve of mine!! I especially gringe when the offgoing nurse reports in a long, drawn out fashion, "his vital signs were; B/P of 120/70, pulse of 76, respirations 18, and temperature 97.9" Wow, really? Couldn't they have just said "vital signs were normal" or "normotensive, afebrile"?

[CloverPark, RN]

I don't know which is worse... The nurse who rattles off useless information or the nurse who literally just reads off the report they got from the shift before them.

[invictus, BSN]

Verbal report on my unit is optional (we have extensive written report documents). Unless the patient coded, or may code soon, I have NO interest in receiving verbal handover, just to read literally the exact same info 5 minutes later. And yes, verbal report often equals mini rant session about anything/everything about the patient the off going staff found annoying.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

Man, sounds like I'm in the minority--I love a thorough report, both giving and receiving. My pet peeve is actually people rushing through reports and skipping info that isn't necessarily crucial but could help my shift flow more smoothly. I feel like it provides better continuity on complex patients; I'd rather hear about trends, patient preferences, and various diagnoses (beyond just admitting diagnosis) during report than have to dig around for it in the chart, because a) digging through the chart for that information takes way longer than the 10 seconds it requires to share in report, and b) I find that a lot of things get missed. However, even though I love thorough reports, I do understand why some people prefer the shorter, bare-bones version.

[Crash_Cart]

8 hours ago, Crash_Cart said:

Yeah, when report turns into a powerpoint presentation.

[GSDlvrRN, MSN]

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 ***~***~****.

[RNperdiem, RN]

In ICU where I have one or two patients, extraneous information isn't too much of an annoyance. It is when I was getting charge nurse report on all the patients on a 45 bed floor that anything more than necessary made for a long report.

[brownbook]

And giving report to OCD nurses! We had a nurse in out patient surgery who only worked the late shift when we occasionally had plastic surgery patients stay the night.

She went over what we charted with a fine tooth comb and would question everything. She received report from a float who gave a quick report so he could get to his job in ICU. She called him while he was working in ICU to question why his I & O was off by 50 ml. These are completely stable healthy patients who mainly need a lot of TLC and hand holding. The ICU nurse said, "I don't have time for this", and hung up. We all felt like cheering.

[Daisy4RN]

2 hours ago, brownbook said:

She received report from a float who gave a quick report so he could get to his job in ICU. She called him while he was working in ICU to question why his I & O was off by 50 ml. These are completely stable healthy patients who mainly need a lot of TLC and hand holding. The ICU nurse said, "I don't have time for this", and hung up. We all felt like cheering.

I had something happen like this also. I floated to a different unit, got report from NOC nurse and as soon as I was done I was told by charge that my home unit needed me back. Gave report to day nurse, when i was finished she started getting upset and telling me it wasnt enough info, i told her that was all i got from the other nurse, she literally started screaming at me in the hall and i just told her to call the other nurse if she needed more and i left. (And btw i gave a good report, if i do say so myself!) Geez, some people!

[Gampopa]

Was passing off a pt who came into the hospital d/t a fall at home. The oncoming nurse was adamant that I tell her if the pt had fallen in the bathroom or in the living room at home and was upset that I wasn't able to tell her.

[Neo Soldier, BSN, RN]

This is a major issue at my job and I wish this could be addressed on some level with the staff at my job. There is a nurse who is passive aggressive with me when it comes to shift report. It's not enough that I hand her my SBAR (which I'm totally not required to do); she insists that I read my SBAR word for word- literally. I could be in the middle of giving her pertinent information, you know, like labs and she says, "so what race is he?" It's frustrating I tell ya!!

[Davey Do]

12 hours ago, Snatchedwig said:

When the previous nurse is injecting pathophysiology into the report like your a idiot who didn't pass the class.

Actually, Snatchedwig, I like it when nurses possess the ability to talk techy. No kidding, I've had nurses ask these:

What's "anhedonia"?

What's "asystole"?