Nurses: How many phone calls do you get per shift?!

[Cola89]

I work on Med Surg and take around THIRTY calls (maybe 40) per 12 hour shift.

Doctors, lab, PT, OT, MRI, family members, social work... the list goes on and on.

It's too many calls. And always when I'm in the middle of doing something. It seems like I can't even complete one sentence of a small conversation with one of my patients without being called on my phone by someone who wants to know something about some other patient of mine.

Personally, all of this calling could drive me insane

So, how bout you? How many calls do you get in a shift and what type of unit or setting do you work on?

[ArmaniX, MSN, APRN]

Less than 5. I work icu.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

It's non-stop for me,so 5 to 10 per hour so that is 50 to 100 for a 10 our shift. The most annoying is when my CHG has dried,I pull the cover off my cannula,tell my patient they are going to fell a stick...THEN...my Vocera goes off . I could not take it anymore and have had to resort to constantly setting it to do not disturb,then back to available to take calls.

[Everline]

This is one of the reasons I don't want to go back to day shift. Ever. On day shift the phone was constantly ringing. Drove. me. crazy. I couldn't give a number as to how many times. It was A LOT. I couldn't finish a conversation or get a task done without my phone interrupting. As a new nurse, it made everything so much more stressful. But my phone and I are friends again now that I am on night shift. It still rings. Just a lot less.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I work in a fairly unique environment where calls are few at night, but if you (or anyone) is looking at this as a project- there's a fair amount of literature describing this problem. And every interruption is a possibility of error.

We used to have a father of one of our long term patients who got his jollies from interrupting report for really lightweight reasons every single day. We tried to get across to him that mistakes are much more likely when you interrupt critical communication- then we figured out that he was just assuring himself the largest possible audience for his trivial requests. Ugh!

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

I work nights in med/surg and the number of calls I get varies greatly. I'm lucky to have wonderful co-workers who indulge my preferences, though. The unit clerks do not put calls through to my phone unless I've OK'd it. They either take messages or call me, themselves, if the call seems very important. I let the calls stack up a bit on busy nights and then call everybody at one time.

[Cola89]

I admit I've made a few errors in the short time I've been on my own. I just self-reported a med error I made the other day. A low dose prn pain med said Q8 hrs. and I thought I saw Q3 hrs. at first (it's often prescribed Q2, 3, or 4 hrs.). So, I gave 2 doses in 6 hrs. It was my mistake. Glad I somehow caught on before I gave the med Q3 h. all day long (?!). Other meds are being given late (other nurses on this floor say that's usual), but still. I'm sure I'm later than they are.

With all these calls, many of them being something trivial, I get very distracted and don't call Drs. when they are consulted, or get a chance to call a consulted Dr. to see if pt xyz is cleared for surgery in as timely a manner as I probably should.

This is the culture and even the nature of my unit. The only way I can see making it stop is to quit.

I don't think I'm cut out for med surg. I got 7 days of floor orientation and I don't think it's enough. I told my manager and she gave me 2 more days. I was thankful that she did add those couple days on, but still.

Honestly, my floor orientation was more like easy days for the nurses who were orienting me. They fielded calls and questions, but didn't have time to keep me in the loop because I was doing all the other stuff like charting, assessments, meds.

But still. If I can't keep up, then I can't keep up.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I work in the ED, so I can get as low as 5 per shift to about 30, from lab, nursing, transfers out, pages back from specialists and social work, pts calling back because prescriptions not at the pharmacy, and people seeking medical advice.

There is usually a unit secretary to field calls, however, we still answer the phone regardless.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Many. When we have no secretary the phone drives you to distraction. There are times I just let it ring. If I am preparing/drawing up meds and if I am directly involved in pt care. I am not willing to interrupt and commit a possible error for the phone. The call may be important; if so, they will call back. Patients and safety trump the phone.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

Less than 5. I work icu.

I worked ICU how is that possible LOL? I always had calls from family, CT, MRI, Lab, and the occasional resident. Plus if we had no clerk and were in charge, we had all calls forwarded to the charge phone.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I work rapid response and some days I get a ton of calls and other days I get hardly any. Just depends on the day.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Somewhere between 2-40. Usually it's closer to 10 or so. I work nights, but I work critical care so especially with admits, I am blowing up people's pagers. Most calls I get are because I paged somebody else first.