by smignoni

We have a number of new nurses who have a difficult time communicating with the physicians on serious clinical issues.They may call about a problem but present it in such a way that no action is taken.I need to do a program to help develop their abilities to sizes up a patient problem get the needed facts and get
some action from the DOC's.The next problem is what to do when the doc does not act or his actions donot resolve the patient problem .Does anyone have any suggestions Sam

At my previous facility, I had the doc's complaining that the nurses were callin on an issue, but did not have enough information for the doc to do anything. We came up with a cheat sheet for some of the calls a nurse might make in LTC. We worked with the medical director, who was the cheif complainer. And we found it helped our other docvs also.
Recommendation: You know what the "usual" problems are for your clientele. Work with the docs or your nursing team to answer this question - What information would I need to treat this individual?
Example: If the resident has elevated B/P, have handy the usual B/Ps, all medications, weight fluctuations, times of elevated B/P in relationship to meds given. That sort of thing.
I hope this helps.
NA