Hospital Policy Vs. Unit Rules

The unit always comes up with new forms for us to fill out, some that make me uncomfortable and some that take up my time & annoy me - BUT ALL OF WHICH are NOT part of the legal chart.

One of these forms is a hand-off sheet, were the nurse highlights info about a patient, and initials it with the nurse from the next shift. When something goes wrong, the management immediately goes to the hand-off to check . For instance, if a vanc through is missed and they nurse blames the previous shift for not reporting

I personally refuse to fill out this form because I believe it sets you up for trouble. It's not in our hospital policy to fill out such a form.

I told this to another nurse, and her response was, "that's why they have everyone sign the education form when they introduce it" When I sign this form, my understanding is that I am signing that I was present and heard it, not that I am bound to do it.

My question is, am I wrong? When we sign those education forms, are we agreeing to abide ?
I understand your frustration but you agree to do abide by whatever your superiors tell you to do (within your typically broad job description) when you take the job. This isn't always possible of course, often because your allegiance to your license and your patients comes first, but unfortunately that doesn't protect your employment status.

We had a similar battle ensue on my unit. The nurses that engaged in the power struggle with management lost and were not looked upon by management favorably for some time. If you keep the sheet updated throughout your shift as much as possible I can't see how this is a huge deal.

We can't possibly know what exactly you are signing, you must read it carefully to understand how it impacts you.Simply determining to refuse a task described by management rarely ends well for the employee.

Report is important, but these nurses need to look over their orders. "I wasn't told that in report" is NOT an excuse.

At the end of the day, I follow hospital policy if it opposes unit policy. Because if the poop hits the fan and something goes wrong, you will be asked why you didn't follow hospital policy. Especially if your boss is one of those who has all these policies that he/she tells you to follow but puts nothing in writing.

I am surprised your unit is still using written report sheets. JACHO has said that verbal, face-to-face report is best. I personally have worked on floors that used report sheets and hated it. I like organizing my shift my way and writing things down in the way I want them organized

Quote from ChristineNI am surprised your unit is still using written report sheets. JACHO has said that verbal, face-to-face report is best. I personally have worked on floors that used report sheets and hated it. I like organizing my shift my way and writing things down in the way I want them organized

Every EMR now has some form of patient summary, are you using something like that or are you manually retrieving bits and pieces of info from the EMR?

Legally speaking --- who knows? I would err on the side of approved policies. However, it might be more fruitful to discuss the forms in a staff meeting and make a recommendation to achieve the same objective via another route.

Quote from VANurse2010Report is important, but these nurses need to look over their orders. "I wasn't told that in report" is NOT an excuse.

I agree this is questionable practice. But I also agree with others that just not doing it won't end well for you. When our superiors come up with "brilliant" ideas, they get their feelings hurt when we don't agree with their brilliance. And when they're feelings get hurt, our paychecks get hurt.And I want to agree with the posts that said to learn to read the freaking chart and you won't have to be told what to do by the previous shift!!!

Here is the deal...it is a Joint Commission requirement to have a systematized hand off....however your facility decides to have that hand off is the facilities business....but it must be followed consistently.Now...these educational "opportunities" on the unit are not meant for you to acknowledge and ignore. If this is the process YOUR unit has "decided upon" then yes...by signing that you were present and are aware this is the process then YES must be followed. We fill out TON of information sheets that are NOT apart of the chart but are required by unit policy for the care of the patient.You may do as you wish however I would not want to be the nurse who's caught not following the hand off requirement by the Joint Commission when they visit.