It doesn't feel right....

[I♥Scrubs, LPN]

Hello all! I have been working in my primary clinic for about a year. Before that I was in a specialty for about a year which I had landed right out of school. I never worked in a nursing home and so I learn new things every single day where I am currently. The first year of my career I was with a specific group of people who came in for one area of specialty-surgery, so generally my pt's there were healthy. I did not deal with acute or chronic issues much and I did not spend much time getting information about peoples conditions. With working in primary care we see a blend of both acute and chronic issues and I am still learning. Our RN who is new to our clinic is overloaded and has been telling the secretarial staff that if someone calls with symptoms that she is too busy and they should send them to the LPN's. (There are two other LPN's, one has been there since I started and the other is new and is taking a lot of time to learn, but she is getting there.) The LPN that I have been working with and I myself do not feel comfortable answering these calls. For me because I am fairly new at nursing, I do not want to miss something. I do not have years and years of experience. I have told everyone this but the RN says it's not "triage" it's "gathering information". But what she doesn't understand is that when she started at our clinic, she was taught how to triage for a week by another RN and she has a triage book at her desk that tells her what questions to ask. How does she expect us to "gather info" when she has been especially trained for it and we have not? Some of the things they call about I have never even seen in clinic or heard of, I don't know the first thing to ask. It doesn't feel right to us, but management keeps telling us we have to do it. She has also been looking at her calls and writing if they have this symptom, this symptom and this symptom they should go to the ED. Well if I call them and they only have one symptom out of three do I send them or not? I end up sending the call back to her anyways. Besides, I deal with all of my work on a daily basis and I don't send my work to her. We have to draw our labs, do EKG's, give shots, fill out prior auths and other papers, do nurse visits, check our rooms for inventory and order, order meds, do our pt calls and refills...( she is usually in her office on the phone, she is supposed to triage and do transition calls)......It just doesn't seem right. Are the other nurse and I wrong to feel this way?

[caliotter3]

I do not think you are wrong to feel this way. Does the RN have a supervisor? Since you have discussed this with her and she is the source of the problem, perhaps it is time to take it up with the practice manager. Sounds as if it is a serious issue. Would certain dampen my enthusiasm to work at a place that expected me to exceed my ability to do the job.