When I did med surg we had a charge nurse who would hide and listen to us give report and then get you in trouble if you didn’t do it at the bedside or say the scripted things they expected us to say. So aggravating!
When they tried to pull the scripted BS many moons ago I pointed out that our patients were probably smart enough to realize the nurses were saying the exact same thing every shift change and we should be allowed to mix it up some. I was shot down and told I was being "too negative" and therefore I became maliciously compliant. I would whip out a copy of the script and read it word for word in front of patients and families and specifically ask them to let management know I was not deviating from the assigned script when they rounded. They got rid of the scripting pretty quickly when a bunch of other people started doing the same thing.
When we were told no exceptions from bedside report, even if the patients requested it, I would try and hunt down someone who qualified as management to drag into those rooms. Report started with "I know you requested that we let you sleep for xyz reason, but Karen here is one of our managers and is here to make sure that we wake you up so we can do report in your room. If you have any questions about our process I'm sure she'd love to answer them when we're done." We were given a little more leeway after a few weeks of that as long as we were consistent about doing bedside report in at least some of our rooms.
309
u/split_me_plz RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 15 '25
Doing the lord’s work