Dealing with doctors

[ultrarunner]

I'm a new nurse and just started a month ago. The place i'm working is very supportive with nurses. Or I guess our union is just good. I'm still shadowing with somebody until now.On my last shift, we were assigned to a chemo patient, the patient was having edema on both arms and legs and getting worse after we hang the chemo. The senior nurse asked me if I can get an order from the MD for LAsix but the MD said he wants to see the pt first but definitely he'll order an antidiuretic. An hour has passed and he haven't checked the patient, my senior nurse asked me again if i could get the Md an ordder. I asked the MD when I saw him on the nursing station, "hey doc have you seen the pt yet? the doc said "well, theres still 20 people waiting to see me".i thought, well cool I guess it can wait Since pt has no sign of distress or whatever anyway. No big deal. But then our unit clinical educator came to me and said, make sure to chart that and put his name(the md) on it just in case. On reflection this evening, I felt that I went out wrong asking the doctor in front of others and made him feel ineffecient or whatever, on the other hand, since my clinical educ sided with me, i think i didn't do anything wrong. After he saw my CE approached me, he got up and took the chart and went as fast as he can to the pt and ordered Lasix IV.i

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

All in a day's work, and sounds like it all worked out OK.

Doc's have an enormous workload too.

They don't just wander around looking superior in street clothes and a flowing white lab coat...I work with some hospitalists and specialists who's beeper-action puts mine to shame.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

hmm....mental note to self, the unit clinical educator has a passive aggressive communication style....

[MyUserName,RN]

hmm....mental note to self, the unit clinical educator has a passive aggressive communication style....

I didn't get that impression. Sounds to me like she was making sure the nurse is covering her A and charting that she made attempts to notify the dr of the problem.

[ultrarunner]

Yes the CE just want to make sure we're covering our A. But...have I done something else to ellicit a better response from the MD? Actually my default assumption was the doc was still busy. I'm thinking next time I should asked him in a better way.. But then again our CE already warned us during our orientation about this particular doc, quizzed us about how to deal with these type of doctors.