My sister is a nurse in Indiana and the story she related to me makes me mad. Is this legal?
I know I have seen posts about secretaries and others triaging phone calls but I haven't heard anyone say they also call in prescriptions.
My sister had an encounter this week regarding a presciption for her daughter. She received a phone call informing her that the physician's office was calling in a script for antibiotics for her daughter (after a urine culture). She asked what her daughter was being treated for and what the antibiotic was and was told "a UTI and the antibiotic is microbid". (The med was obviously Macrobid). She said she wanted to know what the organism is they were treating and at first the person said she didn't know, then came back with nitrosomething. My sister said she had never heard of such an organism and asked to speak to a nurse. She didn't get one. This is the person who called in the prescription! My niece said she didn't know what the big deal was. She works afterschool in a doctors office and calls in presciptions all the time! Is this legal in Indiana?
Also, my niece had surgery recently and my sister found out the person doing the prescreening on the phone was not a nurse either! This is not right!
I'm still a nursing student but I'm constantly informing people I know about the healthcare situation. Most of them are totally unaware that they are being treated by people with very little education or training. It isn't just nurses. They are also training people to take x-rays at clinics. They know the procedure but have no formal radiology training. What next?
Okay, I'm done ranting. I would like to hear if anyone else has heard of unlicensed personnel calling in prescriptions though.
-Roberta