I'm receiving 10-12 weeks orientation on my med-surg floor. Every 4 weeks I rotate preceptors. Tomorrow I begin working with my second preceptor, and I am scared to death. I have heard that this preceptor will give me half of our assigned patients I must take them on as my sole responsibility, which means, dun dun dun, I'll have to call doctors for pts if I need orders. I'm not scared at all of taking on 4 or 6 patients by myself, I feel I can handle most of it and things I can't handle, I have a good team who can show me how to do something I've never done before.
But I am straight up TERRIFIED of having to call a doctor... Because I've never done it before. I've never been told how to do it, and I know certain doctors like things done in a certain way and I don't know what their ways are. I'm also scared that they'll ask me some obscure question about the patient or the patient's history and it'll be the one thing I forgot to look up before calling. Basically I'm terrified of looking like an idiot (first impressions are everything, they say, and that's not a first impression I want to give) and/or getting yelled at by the doctor.
Any advice for a new nurse who's shaking in her Nike Shox?
My version of SBAR is KISS -- keep it short and simple. For example....
"Dr. Smith, this is Nerd on East 4. I'm calling about Mrs. Jones who's in for a colon resection in the morning d/t diverticulitis. Her H/H came back and her hemoglobin is 7.2, I just took her BP and it's 90/78, respirations 25 and pulse 90. Her tele had been sinus, but now she's throwing occasional PVCs. She's not as alert as prior, and is reporting pain in the LRQ, and her abdomen feels hard to the touch, and it was soft 3 hours ago.'
Now, given some docs, I could add, "do you want a stat abd CT, do you want me to call the surgeon on call, do you want me to hang a bag of hespan, etc." and others I could have the NS opened up wide and get the hespan going (and I'd get yelled at if I hadn't done it prior to calling), and others won't take the first suggestion. You'll learn who's the "mother may I?" kind of docs and who's the "use your brain before you call me" docs....
Wow, I can't believe you've gotten this far into orientation without having to call a doc! I had to call one on my very first day. It was kind of nice to get it out of the way.
All of the posts here have had good tips. Keep in mind, though, that you will eventually get a rude, mean, awful doc. Getting yelled at and hung up on, EVEN WHEN YOU ARE RIGHT, is part of learning to be a nurse. Just remember that you are looking out for the best interests of the patient. Try not to take it personally.
Also, if a doc asks you something and you have no idea, don't fudge. I once had a doc ask if the patient was hemodynamically stable. "Just a moment, let me check," I said as I flipped frantically through the chart trying to figure out what she wanted. Then I just said that I didn't know what she meant by that but I would find it if she could let me know what to look for. She just wanted to know his BP.
nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN
1 Article; 2,043 Posts
My version of SBAR is KISS -- keep it short and simple. For example....
"Dr. Smith, this is Nerd on East 4. I'm calling about Mrs. Jones who's in for a colon resection in the morning d/t diverticulitis. Her H/H came back and her hemoglobin is 7.2, I just took her BP and it's 90/78, respirations 25 and pulse 90. Her tele had been sinus, but now she's throwing occasional PVCs. She's not as alert as prior, and is reporting pain in the LRQ, and her abdomen feels hard to the touch, and it was soft 3 hours ago.'
Now, given some docs, I could add, "do you want a stat abd CT, do you want me to call the surgeon on call, do you want me to hang a bag of hespan, etc." and others I could have the NS opened up wide and get the hespan going (and I'd get yelled at if I hadn't done it prior to calling), and others won't take the first suggestion. You'll learn who's the "mother may I?" kind of docs and who's the "use your brain before you call me" docs....