Have you seen scenarios like this happen? A nurse is not "on the clock" and is visiting a friend or family member who is a patient in the hospital in which she works. A physician gives a verbal order to consult another physician for this friend/family member. The "on the clock" nurses are very busy so the "off the clock" nurse writes the order. The physician giving the order knows the "off the clock" nurse works at this hospital, and the nurse routinely takes orders from this physician when "on the clock." The consult ordered was at the patient's request and the patient asked the "off the clock" nurse to help facilitate getting the consult. I feel like nurse-visitors in their own hospitals do this type of "helping" fairly often, even though it may be a somewhat questionable practice. I am wondering if other nurses have seen this?

Nooooo. I can't imagine anyone I work with who would be willing to do that. I certainly wouldn't.

Not a smart thing to do. Could (and probably should) even be considered a HIPAA violation if the visitor accesses the patient chart. Also, why is it being taken as a verbal order? Verbal orders should be restricted to when there is an emergency or when the physician is physically unable to enter the order, such as when scrubbed during surgery.

This would not happen where I work, even before CPOE.

No way would I ever do this. I wouldn't be involved in a friend's care for any reason beyond social to begin with, and accessing a chart while off the clock can get you fired. The only exception I would make would be starting CPR if someone were to code in front of me.

I can't say that I've ever seen this, but personally I would never do it! It is not only a conflict of interest, but a HIPAA violation, seeing as you are not in fact, that patient's nurse.

I don't ever get involved in family/friends care of any kind. If they began to code in front of me, obviously I would begin CPR, but otherwise nope! I am there as a visitor/family/friend not as a nurse.

I'm pretty sure that's against policy, pretty much anywhere, since at the time of the order being written, this nurse is technically not considered an employee of the facility. If only a consult, i can't see this scenario playing out, , but what if the order were written or carried out incorrectly and something adverse happened? The nurses signature in the chart would be of huge concern and I'm sure not so easily overlooked at that time.

Rosequeen hit it right: with the physician right there on the floor, why did he/she not write for this order himself?

I've never seen this done or done it myself. While I have been somewhat aggressive towards ER nurses in refusing to accept their word 'yeah his K+ was good" and stated we would review the labs together (this ER nurse had been an idiot for years) & threaten to abandon my patients to accompany my family member home when ER docs were not medicating properly before D/C, but that's a whole 'nother story.

I hope this facility gets this straightened out quickly, before something happens.

No way.

Nopity nope nope. As a family/friend I ain't touching equipment, meds, or the computer. Depending on the state of my family/friend pt, I might not even toilet them.