Just wondering...

[NurseFrustrated]

Are hospital pharmacists or physical therapists not allowed to call doctors to get medicine/ weight bearing status order clarifications? Why do they call me, the nurse, when I am in the middle of direct patient care and procedures and make me call the doctor with THEIR questions and then call them back with what the doctor said? Making me be the middle man really puts me behind in taking care of patients. I know it's my patient but why is something that it seems they are perfectly capable of doing as licensed medical professionals put on me as the nurse? Is this the way it is at all hospitals?

[PatricksRNMommy]

Are hospital pharmacists or physical therapists not allowed to call doctors to get medicine/ weight bearing status order clarifications? Why do they call me, the nurse, when I am in the middle of direct patient care and procedures and make me call the doctor with THEIR questions and then call them back with what the doctor said? Are they incapable of calling a doctor or do they just want me to be the one that gets yelled at by an irate doctor rather than them? They are licensed professionals aren't they? Are they incapable of writing an order? Is this how it is at all hospitals? Just wondering because it really annoys me...

They absolutely can and they should, IMHO. At my facility the PharmD calls the doctor for order clarifications UNLESS the original order was a telephone order written by the nurse, in which case it is the nurse's responsibilty to call and speak with the doc to clarify. Speech therapy, case management, PT, OT, and RT are able to call doctors and write orders related to their specialties as well, however not all will do so....

[NurseFrustrated]

At my hospital, if the doctor writes the order him-or herself and the pharmacist doesn't understand what the doctor means, they call the nurse and make the nurse call the doctor and then call the pharmacist back. This really made me mad when I was in the middle of taking care of one of my patients who was having chest pain the other day. I told the pharmacist, "you'll have to call the doctor because I can't right now", and the pharmacist acted totally insulted. It really made me mad.

[Flo., BSN, RN]

we have a huge problem with this at my hospital. The biggest offender being the pharmacist. You can count on atleast 20 calls a day from them asking for clarification. It gets me soo mad!

[NurseFrustrated]

we have a huge problem with this at my hospital. The biggest offender being the pharmacist. You can count on atleast 20 calls a day from them asking for clarification. It gets me soo mad!

Me too! lol. I don't mean to knock pharmacists or physical therapists because I know they work hard and are busy too but the things that are put off on the nurses by other departments is just overwhelming.

[Mulan]

I've worked in more than one hospital where the pharmacist would call the doctor.

They just don't want to!

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

Our pharmacists will occasionally call us if they can't translate the doctor's scrawl, but if we can't enlighten them they phone themselves-which is as it should be.

Doesn't happen often, I think they must have studied antique languages, possibly Arabic, Hebrew and hieroglyphics...I take my hat off to them for being able to decipher some of that stuff .

I've always found that the best way to address problems like OP is experiencing is to write a letter to management requesting that the correct protocol be followed. It is not the nurse's job to clarify prescriptions, she doesn't write them up. I mean, what part of "scope of practice" do these pharmacists not understand?

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

Not just them but at one place we had an MDS nurse (one who did only the MDS's) anyway this person would come to me the charge who would be running around with my head cut off and tell me to call the docs for orders she found that weren't warranted anymore. I would get livid. She had an RN license and how am I suppose to call when I don't even agree with half of the hair brained ideas she would come up with anyway.

After that job is when I started noticing that for some reason all the other disciplines feel they are not able or don't know how to call a doc for an order or whatever............I would say something every now and then but it's too far entrenched in people's minds that it's the nurse who calls.

I believe it's because of the relationship that they believe we have with the doc. I guess I can't blame them because if the doc had all kinds of people calling it might get confusing.

[GreyGull]

Computers have eliminated alot of these problems and the pharmacists will call the physician if the order was entered by the physician.

However, it the hospital still uses hand written orders, the pharmacist may call the nursing station to have a read back of the original order in the chart.

As far as allied health professionals going through RNs for orders, some may be laziness and some may be the culture of that facility where the RN is to be directly involved in every order for his/her paitent. That may be a directive coming from nursing administration or the physicians who want to limit calls. This drives the other professionals crazy as well because it slows them down waiting for the RN to get freed up to place the call. Those are the hospitals that usually will have to pay big bonuses to attract PTs, OTs, SLPs and RRTs to work there.

[NurseStephRN]

at my hospital the pharmacists call the doctors for order clarifications, vanco/coumadin dosing, etc and get back to us. i've never heard of PT/OT calling doctors, although they do confer with them on our unit.

[Plagueis]

At my hospital, if the doctor writes the order him-or herself and the pharmacist doesn't understand what the doctor means, they call the nurse and make the nurse call the doctor and then call the pharmacist back. This really made me mad when I was in the middle of taking care of one of my patients who was having chest pain the other day. I told the pharmacist, "you'll have to call the doctor because I can't right now", and the pharmacist acted totally insulted. It really made me mad.

The same thing happens in LTC, too, and it makes me very frustrated. I don't get it. When I've personally gone to a drug store with a script, and there is a question about what the physician ordered, the pharmacist herself calls the physician for clarification; I've never had to call the physician myself. So why doesn't this happen in hospitals or nursing homes?

[enchantmentdis, BSN, RN]

Are hospital pharmacists or physical therapists not allowed to call doctors to get medicine/ weight bearing status order clarifications? Why do they call me, the nurse, when I am in the middle of direct patient care and procedures and make me call the doctor with THEIR questions and then call them back with what the doctor said? Making me be the middle man really puts me behind in taking care of patients. I know it's my patient but why is something that it seems they are perfectly capable of doing as licensed medical professionals put on me as the nurse? Is this the way it is at all hospitals?

Exactly why i now do hospice case management. Pharmacists, physical therapists, dieticians, ot, st, case managers can all get orders for the MD but just don't want to. It is sad that they see how busy the nurse is but don't want to relieve the burden by making calls themselves. They claim they are too busy even as they watch the nurse drowning and running around like a chicken with her head cut off.