Caridiologist asked nurse to evaluated Chest Pain

[angelique777]

I have to ask other nurses with more experience than me there opinion. I work in an ICCU normally but do per diem as a triage nurse in the walkin area of a Family Health clininc. Today was a very busy day in walkin and I got a call from the Medical Assistant in another department to come and check a patient who has chest Pain. Initially I wanted the Medical Assistant to place patient on oxygen and to bring the patient down to walkin in a wheel chair MA said she could not because she was translating for the doctor. I told her chest pain is before translating but decided not to argue and went upstairs to get the patient and bring her to walkin. I see the patient and she in actuality is complaining of midepigastric discomfort but I bring her down to walkin to do an EKG ,repeat vitals and I am about to tell our walkin Doctor about the patient when I find out pt had an appt to see cardiologist and that it was the cardiologist who told the MA to get me to see the patient. Now this got me upset cause Its very busy in walkin and the Doctor never even looked at his patient before calling me to come up. Personally I feel he wasted time and put patient in danger if she really was having chest pain. One I am downstairs and he up stairs with is own medical assistant and EKG person is on his floor. He did not instruct MA to place patient on oxygen or have EKG done nothing pt sitting in a room with nothing done. Am I just wrong. The MA tell me that the cardiologist does not see the patient if BP are high either they send them down to Walkin and have walkin provider see the patient. Is this appropriate. I am new to clinics but is this what happen in other family clinic. Is it more appropriate for him to delicate care to walkin providers or do you feel like I do that the Cardiologist who has a scheduled patient to see him for a heart problem to have there patient BP meds and chest pain be evaluated by the cardiologist who patient is scheduled to see and not by the walkin provider. Just need other people view in this situation. Neither my Director nor the Director of the clinic was in for me to consult with them about the situation .I talked instead to the attending in walkin in about the situation and he states he will talk to the Director about it. I did not speak to the cardiologist because dont feel its my place. That is my director call. My job was to make sure patient taken care of but the overall situation I feel needs to be reevaluated by the Director of the program because I would like to see what there train of thought in this situation.

Appreciated your feed back

Angela

[dekatn]

In my opinion, if the pt. c/o chest pain, elevated BP and had appt. with cardio, the cardio should have seen this pt., enzymes along with ekg should have been stat to r/o. I would definitely discuss this with my director. What happened with the pt.? If you decided that it was possible MI, do you call 911 or are you located in a hospital? Just curious. It just seems odd since the pt. already had the appt. with cardio.