What's up with this RN?

[Guest219794]

More accurately: What's up with "this RN"?

Does anybody know where use of "this RN" in place of "me" or "I" comes from? Can anybody cite a decent source, or another industry in which that kind of writing is used?

"This RN was informed by the PT..." VS "The PT told me...".

I know we were all taught this, but have no idea why, and no longer do it. IT just seems silly. It is neither more, or less, accurate- it is just bad writing, and I can't see how that adds clarity.

Thoughts?

[Kitiger, RN]

I agree.

In the hospital I signed Kitiger, RN, at the end of every entry. Working private duty in the home, I sign at the bottom of every page, and when I leave. Either way, it is easy to see who I am, so I use the pronoun, "I", when charting.

I do avoid using the client's name in the narrative most of the time. I say, "transferred to wheelchair", not "I transferred Johnny to the wheelchair." Why write in all those extra words, when we all know who transferred whom?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

When I chart if I do something, I just annotate that it was done. However, if I ask staff to do something or I call someone and give a verbal order, I document their name. I never put, "this APRN."

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

4 hours ago, hherrn said:

More accurately: What's up with "this RN"?

Does anybody know where use of "this RN" in place of "me" or "I" comes from? Can anybody cite a decent source, or another industry in which that kind of writing is used?

"This RN was informed by the PT..." VS "The PT told me...".

I know we were all taught this, but have no idea why, and no longer do it. IT just seems silly. It is neither more, or less, accurate- it is just bad writing, and I can't see how that adds clarity.

Thoughts?

It's how we were trained, for sure. Do we need to do it this way in the real world? Maybe, maybe not. Plainly others don't. I avoid the "I" and use "nurse" but now you have me wondering why "this nurse" does it!!!

[Emergent, RN]

I finally started using I and me in my charting, although I still drop the pronouns when possible.

I think it's a tradition that got started 100 years ago, and the "this RN" is used when it's grammatically impossible to say what you want to say without a pronoun. I've personally never used it.

For instance, if the patient is cursing up a storm, I'll say "Pt using profanity towards staff". That's an easy way to avoid the dreaded 'me'. If he threw a urinal at me I will clearly say "Pt threw a full urinal at me".

[JKL33]

Meh.

The rationale went along with the idea of writing in neutralized, non-personal terms, including not using first person narrative.

But then there were the little inservices given by various people purporting legal documentation expertise, and their ideas about how they could twist our words. So then it wasn't enough to say, "Physician informed of ______." They would use examples like these in their talks and say sarcastic stuff like, "Oh really? By whom? By you? The patient? Three years later will you specifically remember that it was you?"

So combining all of that ^ stuff with the idea of being neutral/impersonal led to suggestions such as the "this RN" thing.

None of it matters and this is the best way to chart:

✅

If it is necessary to document something in narrative form, that is easily accomplished without the distracting sound of many "I"s or many "This RN"s.

[cleback]

I use "writer" instead of I/this rn. Agree with PPs that it's ingrained in our training to keep documentation as depersonalized as possible.

[Davey Do]

4 hours ago, Emergent said:

If he threw a urinal at me I will clearly say "Pt threw a full urinal at me".

[Emergent, RN]

7 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

This RN called security. Pt became more belligerent, threatening the life of this RN. Restraints initiated.

[Davey Do]

9 hours ago, hherrn said:

9 hours ago, hherrn said:

"The PT told me...".

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

I don't think I was taught "this RN" and now I'm trying to think about all of my private duty charting. I think I just wrote in implied "I"s to avoid it all together. "Changed pt bandage." "Lifted pt up to commode." Gosh, now I'm looking at my current paperwork WHAT DO I PUT? Thanks for the mid-day crisis Davey.

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

I was JUST thinking about this yesterday. It sounds ridiculous, but I've been documenting this way forever. No more! Thank you all for the motivation to mix it up a little! I don't know what's accepted instead, but a little first person never hurt anybody.