Any foreign nurse experienced this before or I am alone?

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Hi everybody. It's great to have people around to talk or share our problems with.Thanks in advance.

I need to talk to someone about an experience that It made me so sad yesterday when I was working. I am a foreign nurse and I have been in the USA for about 4 years but I got my license recently and have been working as an RN for 3 months now.

What happened yesterday was I needed to call a dr about a pt and the dr ordered a medication that I have never heard. I didn't understand what med he was talking about and told him I didn't understand the med. This time he wanted to talk to an other nurse and he sounded so angry. I really don't have any problem with my English, nobody so far complained about my English but this is about not English right?, this is about a med that I wasn't familiar with. I thought MAYBE he could have been more patient and could have spelled it for me?

What do you think? Please I need your suggestions. By the time I am going to be more familiar with medications but how about if it happens again and I don't understand a med that was ordered by phone.What should I do?

Am I alone, or any other foreign nurse experiences such things too?

Any suggestions? Please I need your help and looking forward to hearing from you..

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Specializes in ICU, Surgery.

I am not a foreign nurse but I have had trouble understanding a phone order from a doctor. You are certainly not alone on this! I just ask them to spell it and if it makes them angry,then that's their problem not mine!

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Specializes in geriatric nursing.

you should have asked the doctor to spell it out to you... ;) you're not alone...

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
I am not a foreign nurse but I have had trouble understanding a phone order from a doctor. You are certainly not alone on this! I just ask them to spell it and if it makes them angry,then that's their problem not mine!

I, also, am not a foreign nurse and have also had this happen.

JCAHO is trying to decrease verbal order usage due/to mistakes in taking such orders.

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Specializes in Peds.

I'm not a foreign nurse but we can't always hear everything correctly. Maybe next time say something like I'm sorry, we must have a bad connection. Could you please spell that so that I can make sure our patient gets the right medication.

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Thank you so much everbody!! You made me so happy. I don't know how to show my appreciation. I just wanted to give you a big hug.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL NICE PEOPLE!! THANK YOU ALLNURSES.COM...

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You are definitely not alone, and it is the physician's responsibility to make sure that you understand him correctly. You can alwyas get another nurse listen in on the call, or make sure that he spells it for you. And if he is unable to spell it, he will need to come in and write it.

Phone orders should not be used routinely, more accidents can occur just because of this. But there was nothign that you did wrong, it wss 100% the physician at fault.

I would also make sure to follow this up with your manager, you do not have to accept behavior like this, it is completely inappropriate at any time.

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I am not a foreign nurse but I have had trouble understanding a phone order from a doctor. You are certainly not alone on this! I just ask them to spell it and if it makes them angry,then that's their problem not mine!

This is a peculiar problem btw nurses and doctors , but you need to settle each case as it occurs . Clarifying what you dont understand or hear is not a sin but it is when you fail to. We are working to achieve the same goal. I am a foreign nurse and I,m planning to relocate to usa. The relationship is the same all over the world , so dont feel bad. IT IS WELL.

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Sorry, wrong forum..

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Thank you everybody. Most important part is patient safety. Evendough I was so sad when that happened, now thanks to you, I realized that most important part was I got the correct medication for my patient. Next time if it happens again and a dr gets angry because I don't get the medication she-he says, I will say " can you spell it out for me or would you like to come by and write it with your own hands" :)

Thank you all, you made me feel like I am not alone.

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Specializes in Peds.
........., I will say " can you spell it out for me or would you like to come by and write it with your own hands" :)

.

LOL... I'm not sure I'd offer to let a doctor write it. I think most of them take an elective course on how to write horribly......:icon_roll

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LOL... I'm not sure I'd offer to let a doctor write it. I think most of them take an elective course on how to write horribly......:icon_roll

LOL..You're right. The other day I was trying to read a dr order. I thought it was a whole new alphabet.The secretary who has been working more than 20 years saw me struggling, she smiled and said "This is one his best hand writings" Can you imagine, I don't even want to think about his normal hand writing.

BTW Why they don't teach us how to read horrible dr orders in nursing school?:rolleyes:

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