Straight A Nursing

In this podcast we talk about giving a succinct, flawless and informative end-of-shift report. Sounds simple enough, right? It should be, but you'd be surprised how often a bad shift report can leave you with more questions than answers. But, if you follow these guidelines, you'll be someone that all the other nurses LOVE getting report from...and yes, you will be giving report as students, too! An awesome shift report starts with your "brain sheet." This is a sheet of paper where you write down all the pertinent data you need to take excellent care of your patients. Here's what my brain sheet for the ICU looks like: Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? Note that you would never use a brain sheet like this for Med/Surg or someplace where you have 4-5 patients...you'd never get through report before the end of your shift! As you give report, you basically go through all the items on your brain sheet. I like to start with the patient's name, age, admit date, diagnosis, who the docs are, allergies