What is the funniest/worst/quickest (any adjective) shift report you've received? I was just thinking about one I got a few years ago when I worked in the nursing home that covered all three of the above. Went something like this...
As the PM nurse tossed me the med room keys, "Everybody's okay. Joe Shmoe died. I counted the narcs with the supervisor. I gotta run. Are you good?"
Because this was a nursing home with the same 28 dementia residents that I worked with day in and day out, I knew not much changed, so I was okay with that report. Would never accept something like that now, though.
I've gotten report before from a nurse who waited until five minutes before I got there to make calls to several physicians regarding changes in her patients. It went something like this:
"Mr. Smith has some new hematuria, I just paged urology, he should be calling back any minute. Mrs. Jones wants her diet advanced, I just paged Dr. Black, he should be calling back any minute. Mr. White said he's not getting all of his home meds, so I paged Dr. Brown, he should be calling back any minute. Anyway, gotta run, have a good night!" And out the door she ran, just as the phones started ringing...
What a tacky thing to do.
The next time I followed her, and she would not be leaving early ever again, the first thing I would say is:
Do you have pages out to anyone? Because you WILL be staying and taking the call. I am NOT taking orders on people that I have not assessed.
We can start report when you are finished with that phone call.
I want to add that I would insist that Ms page three doctors at 1845 do bedside rounds with me on each pt. according to policy. That would never happen again.
Even when I am receiving report on patients that I know very well, I ask are there any abnormal labs that I need to know about, and are there any new orders that I need to know about?
Some people intentionally omit some information and if you had ever found an order for two units of PRBCs or a stat CT written hours ago you would do that too.
I've gotten report before from a nurse who waited until five minutes before I got there to make calls to several physicians regarding changes in her patients. It went something like this:
"Mr. Smith has some new hematuria, I just paged urology, he should be calling back any minute. Mrs. Jones wants her diet advanced, I just paged Dr. Black, he should be calling back any minute. Mr. White said he's not getting all of his home meds, so I paged Dr. Brown, he should be calling back any minute. Anyway, gotta run, have a good night!" And out the door she ran, just as the phones started ringing...
Personally I don't really care. Every patient is going to need things done, that's why they are in the hospital with round-the-clock care. At least they already paged the Doc, and none of those things are all that complicated. All three things combined will take just a few minutes of phone and order writing time. I'm there to work, I'm not going to complain that there are things I have to do or that there was more the previous nurse could have done because there is always more that could have been done, just like when I leave at the end of my shift.
My second job is as a home care nurse for a (very stable- he's weaning and going to live happily ever after) vent dependent toddler. So I 'give report' to his hilariously sarcastic mother every morning just as she's rolling out of bed. We share a similar sense of humor so report is usually "Well, he's still alive! - and I washed your dishes out of boredom"
Report received on a direct admit coming from an outlying area - "Well, he's not a diabetic". That was what she led with, not the chest pain, diaphoresis, previous MIs with stents, and a blood pressure of 220/122. I called the doc to alert him of the arrival time of our "box of chocolates".
Yeah.. oncoming nurse " I know the patients therefore did anything change? translation- I don't want to do the report, just tell me if anything changed in a specific patient..
And out the door she ran, just as the phones started ringing...
icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN
1,970 Posts
What a tacky thing to do.
The next time I followed her, and she would not be leaving early ever again, the first thing I would say is:
Do you have pages out to anyone? Because you WILL be staying and taking the call. I am NOT taking orders on people that I have not assessed.
We can start report when you are finished with that phone call.