Fun with Residents

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

Oh boy, what a night.

Nurse: Per our protocol, I'm calling to inform you of a critical assessment finding.

Resident: Great. Thanks for telling me. Now what do I do?

Nurse: ...Well, under the protocol, you have the option to do a, b, or c.....

Resident: I see what you mean. So, given the choice of a, b, or c, what would you do?

Nurse: ......Well, the merits of a, b, and c are as follows.....

Resident: All great points, very well said.

.....

............

Resident: So what should I do?

[Two hours later]

Nurse: Per the protocol, I'm calling to let you know that the critical assessment finding is still unchanged.

Resident: Great, good to know. So what do I do?

*face palm*

[AJJKRN]

For the most part I really enjoy having residents...unless/until they get cocky...or are so afraid to act that a patient goes back into DKA or something insane like that

[Davey Do]

Resident: All great points, very well said. So what should I do?

[Two hours later]

Nurse: Per the protocol, I'm calling to let you know that the critical assessment finding is still unchanged.

Resident: Great, good to know. So what do I do?

[Davey Do]

[datalore]

They will (hopefully, eventually) learn enough to make their own decisions... humility can never be taught! Unless they're creating unsafe situations by simultaneously not knowing AND not acting on solid advice, I'm happy when they know what they don't know and defer to more experienced team members.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

They will (hopefully, eventually) learn enough to make their own decisions... humility can never be taught! Unless they're creating unsafe situations by simultaneously not knowing AND not acting on solid advice, I'm happy when they know what they don't know and defer to more experienced team members.

Very true, I'd much rather work with a resident who asks for help when they need guidance than one who runs headlong in the wrong direction. Still, there are those occasional nights where I can't help but (especially when they're asking me for the answers because they're too afraid to wake up the senior resident, or god forbid the attending, lol!) That's why they're making the big bucks.

[Davey Do]

they're too afraid to wake up the ... attending

Speaking of waking the attending, one psychiatrist on call refuses to answer his phone between the hours of midnight and 0600! This can be quite a problem when orders, for example like a chemical restraint, are needed for an acting out psychotic patient.

During a particular inservice, the department manager assured us that if we called her, she would be able to reach the doc via a "backdoor number".

Well, one time it so happened that we needed orders for mechanical and chemical restraints for an adult patient who had attacked me. The doc did not return our messages, so we contacted the administrator. And then, as luck would have it, the administrator fell asleep. She apologized profusely and gave us her husband's cell number.

So- the plan was, if the doc did not return our calls, we were to contact the administrator, and if she didn't return our calls, we were to contact her husband. I thought, "But what if the husband didn't return our calls?" when I came up with a failsafe plan: