Published
A prudent physician would have arranged 24-hour on-call coverage with another provider during the time (s)he is out on vacation.
Let me guess? This is a nursing home, LTC facility or SNF, as some previous posters have conjectured? If so, your only choice as a prudent nurse is to call 911 when patients experience changes in condition that cannot be managed with nursing interventions.
A physician or midlevel (PA or NP) needs to be on call at all times. Anything short of this standard is dangerous for the patients.
lumbarpain, ADN, RN
351 Posts
We have one doctor working at our facitlity...he is the only one that we deal with...our facility is 200 beds and this doctor also has his own practice to boot....This doctor of ours...went on vacation.....I found it out by chance after a day off from work....a note was tacked onto our cabinet and it stated....Only call Dr. So and So between the hours of 5 and 6pm, hes on vacation.........now....whats a nurse to do? I have thought endlessly about quitting this horrid job and he was the main reason...he is a nasty, condenscending, &^$#%^&9 and all the nurses don't like him because of this.....management does nothing to get rid of him or hire at least 2 doctors to take over.....its so frustrating. 1 hour window to call him...can you believe this?