Dear New Doctor

[snoopy29]

Twice a year there is a date that fills every UK nurse with dread..... it's the day that the new doctors rotate or begin their first placement! Some fit in like they have always worked here others find it a bit more of a challenge so thought it might help to write them an introduction.....:)

Dear Doctor

Welcome to our department and we all hope you have a happy, enjoyable fullfilling time here. In order to make the most of this time we thought the following might be helpful.....

If a really loud irritating alarm rings and nurses start running it's best not to stand open mouthed in the doorway, that's our cardiac arrest bell. If you can help run with us if not move aside for the stampede. Equally if that shiny red phone rings and nobody is around then please answer it. It is not going to be the local pizza delivery place checking our order but some poor paramedic being tossed around an ambulance trying to pre-alert us about a critically ill patient.

We don't wotk flexi time here - if you arrive 15 minutes late then you will be working 15 minutes late.

Let me introduce our patients. Please remember that they are not just medical puzzles for you to unravel they also have emotions. They will probably be frightened and need to know what is going on. When you talk to them (yes I will expect you to talk with them!!)don't give them a medical definition give them something they understand. Please keep them informed - there is nothing worse than going into a patient to transfer them to the ward when you haven't bothered telling them they are being admitted.

However handsome you are and regardless of what you have seen on the telly trust me nurses are not here to mop your brow, make your tea or run errands for you. :redbeathe

If a nurse asks calls for help then you go... it is not usually because they have broken a nail it's much more likely their patient has collapsed and they cannot maintain an airway and reach for the emergency bell at the same time!!!

Yes that plunge neck top might have looked great in the mirror but it's not appropriate on the ward so I will be asking you to cover up with some very unflatttering scrubs. Equally you might feel dapper in that rather nice silk tie but it's an infection risk so off it comes.

I know exactly what order patients arrived in and if I see you shifting cards around to avoid the elderly patient with multiple complex chronic conditions in favour or a lighter case I will notice and guess what will be coming your way for the rest of the shift!!!!!!.

Please don't have a paddy if your patient has not been cannulated, if the nurses are getting hammered from all sides and don't have enough time to cannulate then suck it up and do it yourself.

If you make any of my nurses or nursing assistants cry then you will have me to deal with. If their is an issue that needs resolving come to me. If you are having a bad day come to me, if you take it out on a nurse then feathers will fly

Nurses have names! We won't expect you to remember them all but "hey you" won't win you any bonus points.

If you don't know something then ask. Please don't come in clutching your text book and whip it out in order to check something in front of a patient. Checking is fine but not in front of an already anxious patient and family.

Please clear up after yourself. last time I checked your mother didn't work here!!. Sticking sharps in the trolley matress does not count as clearing up and you will have to deal with a very irate nurse in charge if people have been put at risk because of laziness.

If a nurse asks you to review a patient they are not doing so to increase your workload. They have spotted a deterioration in their patient and know the earlier you intervene the better for everyone.

Remember to say thankyou ..... it's so simple but it goes such a long way, and it's not just the nurses, the porters, domestics, receptionists all form part of team and if you say thankyou trust me it will be remembered for a very long time.

Best wishes

The harassed nurse in charge

Simple really but if every new doctor took on the above, my life would be sooooo much easier.

[IbinNemer]

[EquuszARNP]

Very good, Snoopy! You should post this on the Student Doctor forum, too!

--Equusz

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

Remind them what comes around goes around...... =)

[GilaRRT]

I am not all that keen of giving new providers (insert your provider of choice) a hard time. I am back to being a student and rotating through a level I trauma centre and I have to say the baby doctors are treated pretty rough and have a tough schedule. In spite of having to go in a 0400 for blood gasses for the next few weeks, I can still appreciate the difficult path these guys face in spite of being tired myself. I am not a big comes around goes around guy with students or new providers.

In addition, posting on SDN is not all the productive unless the goal is to have a flame thread. If that is the case, then this is nothing more than trolling.

[snoopy29]

Dear GilaRN

thankyou for your comments. Over the years the one thing above everything else that has made me a good nurse is the ability to laugh and above all else the ability to laugh at myself.

If one of my new doctors did a post entitled Dear Sister it would make me smile. I would see that in their eyes many of the things I do are the cause of irritation or angst.

When the new doctors come - i wouldn't refer to them as "baby doctors" for many reasons - I work doubly hard to ensure that they are safe, prtoected, empowered and supported. I

[GilaRRT]

Snoopy, I do appreciate the humor. However, I do not want the thread to steer from it's original intent to a bash physician thread.

[snoopy29]

with respect we will beg to differ

[platon20]

If a really loud irritating alarm rings and nurses start running it's best not to stand open mouthed in the doorway, that's our cardiac arrest bell. If you can help run with us if not move aside for the stampede. Equally if that shiny red phone rings and nobody is around then please answer it. It is not going to be the local pizza delivery place checking our order but some poor paramedic being tossed around an ambulance trying to pre-alert us about a critically ill patient.

New residents get yelled at all the time for answering the EMT phone, or playing with patient monitors, silencing alarms, etc. As a result, most of them choose to just ignore phone calls and the like for fear of getting yelled at. You cant have it both ways.

I know exactly what order patients arrived in and if I see you shifting cards around to avoid the elderly patient with multiple complex chronic conditions in favour or a lighter case I will notice and guess what will be coming your way for the rest of the shift!!!!!!.

I dont understand this. If there are multiple docs on call then I could see one of them procrastinating on a patient and trying to force the next doc to pick it up. But thats not usually how these call systems work. Usually there's just one doc who has to cover all the new admits so it wouldnt make any difference to his workload if he tried to "delay" the old/chronic patient.

At any rate, what do you mean by your implication that you will send the doc complex patients for the rest of the shift? I wasnt aware that nurses had the ability to decide which patients go to which doctor. If they come thru the ER or as a direct admit, they have to be dealt with, period. Its not like you can say "oh we have 2 patients who came thru the ER and only one of them is really sick, the other one can wait till the next day." Both of them have to be seen and orders put in.

Please don't have a paddy if your patient has not been cannulated, if the nurses are getting hammered from all sides and don't have enough time to cannulate then suck it up and do it yourself.

I'm assuming you are referring to a foley cath here. You really want a newbie doc with no experience putting that in? Most of the nurses I work with would NEVER allow a new "baby" doc to do that unassisted and I suspect that if an intern took the initiative to do it on his/her own, the nurse would be very angry with them and give them a stern talking-to.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

What is the big deal with Foleys?

And FYI depending on the country/facility it might just be someone like the OP who does have a bit more control over things relating to new docs. You'd be surprised who has the ear and trust of your superiors. Best to be open to learning and to be conscious of experience at all times when you are new and years beyond no matter what your profession.

I don't believe the OP is trying to start a trash thread at all.

[GilaRRT]

I do not think the OP is trying to start a trash thread either.