Why do I have to call lab to remind them of timed blood draws being drawn, well, on time?
Why do I have to call dietary to make sure the ordered supplements are on the tray?
Why do I have to call pharmacy to refill the Pyxis?
Why do I have to call supply to tell them that they smooshed two types of IVF together in the supply Pyxis and they need to sort it out?
A STAT imaging call to radiology is our job, but why do I have to follow up 30 minutes later?
Even if I'm busy, I have to check orders every 30 minutes because STAT orders are put in without a courtesy call to the nurse!
I wish, as an orientation exercise, every department of the healthcare team was required to shadow a nurse for a day. I think many eyes would be opened.
Yes. I cringe when I hear dietary, PT, RT, lab, etc say "I'll get your nurse". Especially if I've already heard about it from all those people and it's non-emergent.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
I believe that nurses must do all of those things because, unlike the other disciplines, we are the advocates for the whole patient. We are charged with managing ALL aspects of their treatment and care while in our care environment. All of the other disciplines (RT, PT, Dietary, Lab, Radiology, etc) have responsibilities limited in scope by their specialty. Our specialty is the patient.
We get way too many calls for clotted CBCs. I know this occurs primarily at the time of draw, but for some hard sticks it's hard to get that much blood or that clean of a flow. After the first few I started taking the specimens down myself (probably had to go to blood bank or pharmacy anyway since it's my job to do their job) and making sure they were nice fluid samples with no clotting all the way to the container. Still got calls about clotting.
The other day our linen cart was out of fitted sheets so the housekeeper left a note on a paper towel "out of linen, but bed is clean." So what do you expect is going to happen? I as the nurse had to go downstairs to our sister floor and take some sheets to make my admission's bed on top of the nurse stuff. It's not hard to walk a flight of stairs or make a bed, but it adds up.
Had a septic patient on the brink of shock ordered 2 STAT IV abx which I requested at 1. I got very busy with an admission and was just hoping the pharmacy would bring the meds to the floor for me, which isn't normally the case overnight we have to go get our own meds because they don't staff as many techs on nights. Called them at 2 to see if the med was ready, and the pharmacist hadn't even looked at the order (despite it being STAT). She assured me that she would get started, and I reminded her of the STAT order and emergent nature of the patients condition. Another hour later the medications were ready for me to retrieve (at 3). By then the patient was in SIRS with bottomed out pressure, but the pharmacy was actually pretty quick in getting the needed pressors ready.
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
The stakes are usually not as high for us in LTC .We have the usual problems with the hairdresser, dietary dept and laundry services. Lab techs don't arrive or draw on the wrong resident and leave the tourniquet still in place and sharps in the bed. They'll scurry off the unit after marking "refused" in the lab log on a demented combative resident without even asking for staff to assist. PT/OT will drop a resident on the floor, ST will try to feed someone who is going through those Pearly Gates, the laundry is loosing many pounds of clothing a week, the housekeepers now vacuum and dust the light fixtures over the heads of sleeping residents in the am and run the floor buffer right outside the dining room door during the meals - the list goes on and on.
The burden I bear is this "What do you mean mother is not dying? She looks awful !" Mother is in her late 90's and while not thriving she is not lining up in front of the Pearly Gates, either. I'm so sorry your family is being inconvenienced but we have educated you at length and your mom could live another couple of years on a few cans of ensure a day.
Or "what do you mean, mother is dying,she has always been a picky eater" Well, now she weighs 60 LBS and is at high risk for everything and you want to blame us for not making her eat-when she purses her lips, turns her head and says "no"
It really blows that I can't orchestrate your loved ones death at a more convenient time for you and you family and I'm so sorry that death is not pretty and in fact it smells a little bit...I am trying my best, maybe the lavender oil I am splashing around so liberally will calm YOU down.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I believe that nurses must do all of those things because, unlike the other disciplines, we are the advocates for the whole patient. We are charged with managing ALL aspects of their treatment and care while in our care environment. All of the other disciplines (RT, PT, Dietary, Lab, Radiology, etc) have responsibilities limited in scope by their specialty. Our specialty is the patient.
You must be kidding me! Are you a nurse? Have you read the whole thread? There's no reason an RT, PT or X-ray tech cannot put the patient's legs back in bed, plug in a bedside phone or hand the patient a kleenex, glass of water or straw. None of that requires a nursing education or a nursing license. The X-ray tech who is gowned and in the isolation room with a patient is just as capable of lifting the patient's legs into the bed as I am, and had better not be calling me to come in and do it unless he's also concerned that the femoral arterial line has become compromised. The RT who has just given the patient a breathing treatment and is now making him cough can hand him a kleenex, and if there's a concern that the phone isn't working, at least check to make sure it's plugged in. The phlebotomist who just interrupted dinner to draw blood can give the dinner tray back to the patient -- no need to call the nurse. And the Dietary Aid who trips over the visitor's purse can move it out of the way.
Yes, we are advocates for the whole patient, but some of the simple stuff that gowned and gloved employees refer to "the nurse" is ridiculous!
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
We get way too many calls for clotted CBCs. I know this occurs primarily at the time of draw, but for some hard sticks it's hard to get that much blood or that clean of a flow. After the first few I started taking the specimens down myself (probably had to go to blood bank or pharmacy anyway since it's my job to do their job) and making sure they were nice fluid samples with no clotting all the way to the container. Still got calls about clotting.
The other day our linen cart was out of fitted sheets so the housekeeper left a note on a paper towel "out of linen, but bed is clean." So what do you expect is going to happen? I as the nurse had to go downstairs to our sister floor and take some sheets to make my admission's bed on top of the nurse stuff. It's not hard to walk a flight of stairs or make a bed, but it adds up.
Had a septic patient on the brink of shock ordered 2 STAT IV abx which I requested at 1. I got very busy with an admission and was just hoping the pharmacy would bring the meds to the floor for me, which isn't normally the case overnight we have to go get our own meds because they don't staff as many techs on nights. Called them at 2 to see if the med was ready, and the pharmacist hadn't even looked at the order (despite it being STAT). She assured me that she would get started, and I reminded her of the STAT order and emergent nature of the patients condition. Another hour later the medications were ready for me to retrieve (at 3). By then the patient was in SIRS with bottomed out pressure, but the pharmacy was actually pretty quick in getting the needed pressors ready.
You must be kidding me! Are you a nurse? Have you read the whole thread? There's no reason an RT, PT or X-ray tech cannot put the patient's legs back in bed, plug in a bedside phone or hand the patient a kleenex, glass of water or straw. None of that requires a nursing education or a nursing license. The X-ray tech who is gowned and in the isolation room with a patient is just as capable of lifting the patient's legs into the bed as I am, and had better not be calling me to come in and do it unless he's also concerned that the femoral arterial line has become compromised. The RT who has just given the patient a breathing treatment and is now making him cough can hand him a kleenex, and if there's a concern that the phone isn't working, at least check to make sure it's plugged in. The phlebotomist who just interrupted dinner to draw blood can give the dinner tray back to the patient -- no need to call the nurse. And the Dietary Aid who trips over the visitor's purse can move it out of the way.
Yes, we are advocates for the whole patient, but some of the simple stuff that gowned and gloved employees refer to "the nurse" is ridiculous!
Exactly!!!!!!!!! A million times over! These scenarios have happened to me. I believe it is called laziness at its best.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
You must be kidding me! Are you a nurse? Have you read the whole thread? There's no reason an RT, PT or X-ray tech cannot put the patient's legs back in bed, plug in a bedside phone or hand the patient a kleenex, glass of water or straw. None of that requires a nursing education or a nursing license. The X-ray tech who is gowned and in the isolation room with a patient is just as capable of lifting the patient's legs into the bed as I am, and had better not be calling me to come in and do it unless he's also concerned that the femoral arterial line has become compromised. The RT who has just given the patient a breathing treatment and is now making him cough can hand him a kleenex, and if there's a concern that the phone isn't working, at least check to make sure it's plugged in. The phlebotomist who just interrupted dinner to draw blood can give the dinner tray back to the patient -- no need to call the nurse. And the Dietary Aid who trips over the visitor's purse can move it out of the way.
Yes, we are advocates for the whole patient, but some of the simple stuff that gowned and gloved employees refer to "the nurse" is ridiculous!
I have been a nurse for more than 3 decades.
My post was in reply to the OP.
I am well aware that other disciplines CAN do other things for patients. The problem is that their management and the facility administration do not expect or require that from them.
We are the only discipline charged with the responsibility for the entire patient. Our nursing process encompasses all of it. I know that you are a very experienced nurse and are well aware of this fact.
Having said all of that, I completely understand the frustration felt by nurses in general for their level of responsibility and accountability which is not reflected in their wages or level of respect in the health system.
One of many dietary staff is having trouble multitasking and getting breakfast out to patients on time? Lets have the nurse drop everything and be a waitress whenever she works, lab had one incident in 20 years, lets have the nurse drop everything and sit in the lab room during ALL lab draws for an hour every Tues am, you think that maintenance and housekeeping are taking too many breaks? Lets have the nurses be in charge of making sure everyone signs in and out all day long.
You are having trouble with light duty employees refusing to work? The nurse can be in charge of assigning them tasks and still listening to them refuse.
Laundry can refuse to check pockets because they dont have time...but lets have the nurse spend hours trying to find out who is missing a hearing aid and explain to their family it will be $700+ to replace it.
Yep, I know every department has their issues but at our facility the only solution ever is to have the nurses add more work to their day that takes us away from taking care of our patients.
I understand having to call other departments. I do it all the time in LTC but I also understand that those departments get busy and backed up as well. Orders don't always get turned in properly or with proper notice and things slip through the cracks so we, as nurses, are responsible for making sure that our patients come first. We make sure that everything gets done even if it's not our department. Yes, it's frustrating, but someone has to do it and it certainly isn't going to be the doctor. Every department gets busy and sometimes they get behind and forget things just like we do (example: giving meds to 20+ residents and forgetting the pain pill one resident asked for an hour ago). I can empathize with the other departments...
That said, I am tired of actually following up and STILL getting blamed with something going wrong. When we are about to run out of a medication I always re-order it through pharmacy. If it doesn't come the next night I check to make sure it was ordered and call the pharmacy to follow-up. And yet even after doing these things I am somehow STILL at fault when the medication runs out and the new meds haven't come in. I can't magically make medications appear no matter how hard I focus my brain power.
For some reason, I am unable to quote, so this is in response to toomuchbaloney. While I understand what you are getting at, other disciplines are just as important to the care of the patient as nurses are. Without their pieces of the puzzle, the "whole patient" doesn't receive comprehensive care. That said, it is not unreasonable to expect them to do their jobs without us babysitting them every step of the way. Having to do so takes my time away from the direct care of the patient.
1fastRN
196 Posts
Yes! ARGH!