by merae

The Kaplan book states that "Notify Physician" should never be chosen as the answer as they don't want to know what the doctor would do, they want to know what the nurse would do.

The Saunders book has "Notify Physician" as legitimate answers for some emergent situations.

Which is right?

Re: "Notify Physician" as answer

HI...yeah..that has been reiterated many times by our reviewer too.BUt,,applying that tip depends too on the question. I should say..it's a case to case basis..

Re: "Notify Physician" as answer

The point is you do your nursing assessment. If there is anything that cannot be done by a nurse or if the situation is critical and you need more orders to alleviate a situation then yes you notify the physician.

So, you assess and then notify the doctor.

Notifying the doctor alone is passing the buck and it disregards nursing care because you as the nurse must address the patient first.

So yes you can notify. Just be sure that the answer includes nursing actions as well...after all this is a nursing test.

Re: "Notify Physician" as answer

I took the Kaplan review as well and I have to admit that I did not read every word in the book. However, during my review course we did touch on when to notify the physician. Clearly if the situation can be handled by a nurse then the physician does not need to be notified as your first choice. Other situations such as a smoker on theophylline who notifies you that they have quit smoking would warant notifying the physician because the change in status would alter their theophylline level. So it is a matter of knowing what nurses can do and when the physician needs to be notified (as seen in the theophylline example where a change in medication dosing is required in order to avoid toxicity).

I hope that helps.

Re: "Notify Physician" as answer

when i used saunders, it gave many questions where "notify physician" was the most appropriate answer, i also had one of these questions on Nclex and i chose to "notify physician" don't know if i got the question correct or not.