Nurses- medical provider needs your opinion!

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Jul 20, 2015

I once told a doctor "My patient is having a lot of throat pain, I think they need something IV for pain."

He half jokingly said, "Ugh, I'm busy, so give them something IV got pain."

I have a good rapport with this doc, and obviously I'm glad he trusts me, but, c'mon, you know that's not how that works.

So I joked back to him, "Ok, imma gonna go ahead and order dilaudid 10mg IV q1h under your name, k?"

He was just like, "Gah, divide that by 10 and we'll talk."

Me: "That was ALMOST a legit prescription."

Buckeyeqt · Jul 20, 2015

Hi All! So wanted to give you some examples. When he or the other medical providers do a call shift they are required to do admissions as well, but now they're only requires to do two admissions and take calls, as they were being over worked and exhausting themselves thing to take all calls the med group is required and admissions. He said a friend of his had 120 calls in his shift 7-7 and half of them were frivolous. SO said an example is a time when at 3 am he was doing an admission a nurse called to tell him a patient needed a speciality bed. SO was floored as to why at 3 she would call and state this as it's something that can be felt with in the morning with charge nurse. Or a nurse who called in to state patient had high BP BUt she didn't know his name or what he came in for. So time was wasted on her trying to figure out her charting during the phone call. He also states it's not mandated they call for changes but sometimes they do but he understands It could be to check their bases, and he doesn't mind that. He also said if there's already a baseline then calling to let him know isn't necessary as they are already aware of the issue. He is trying to work on having a better out look and not let the over needed phone calls get to him. He wants to remember everyone has a role and he is a team player so your POV does help when he reads these comments. Thank you.

NutmeggeRN, BSN · Jul 20, 2015

Unfortunately for her, the PREVIOUS shift did not do it......so it fell on her. If she had not, when AM shift comes on, there is he!! to pay. She just did not get to it until 1 AM

bagladyrn, RN · Jul 20, 2015

He may want to take a look at what the nursing policy and procedures require for some of these calls. The nurses are probably quite aware that this may be the patients baseline or not a large change from previous condition but the policy (not the doctors orders) says the provider must be notified within a certain time frame. I run into this frequently with "critical" lab values.

I do agree that the nurse who calls unprepared with basic info should be corrected on that.

heron, ASN, RN · Jul 20, 2015

Thank you for getting back to us, OP.

dudette10, MSN, RN · Jul 20, 2015

Unfortunately for her, the PREVIOUS shift did not do it......so it fell on her. If she had not, when AM shift comes on, there is he!! to pay. She just did not get to it until 1 AM

And when the AM shift comes on, my answer for not getting the bed order is, "Next time, YOU wake up the MD at 0300 for a bed order that can wait until the sun is up."

There really was no excuse for that.

chare · Jul 20, 2015

Thank you for returning with additional comments. As you have, let me apologize for my previous comment.

Velarey · Jul 21, 2015

You're welcome. Wanted to add he said he doesn't know of anyone he works with who sleeps. Basically they have time to hangout if it's not busy but when they were doing admissions and calls and admissions were not restricted to two, there was hardly anyone downtown. Now since it a restricted they have more downtime but he doesn't sleep not anyone else he works with in the med group although there is a bed in their office.

emmy27 · Jul 22, 2015

I really don't think it's facilities wanting to turn RN's into brainless robots. I blame The Joint Commision. It's sad to see even the difference from 8 years ago when I started to today's new grads and what's being taught as far as independent thinking.

The latest thing at our facility is that we can't carry saline flushes with us in our pockets, they have to be pulled one at a time and carried in your hands to the scene of the required flush. Because it's a med, dontcha know!

Somehow, my license is on the line if a patient in my care dies or is injured related to my nursing judgement, but I'm still not quite trustworthy enough to carry a wrapped syringe of saline on my person to troubleshoot and maintain IVs. Who knows what kind of dangerous med errors I might get up to if I was allowed to anticipate the need for 10 mls of salt water in advance!

No Stars In My Eyes · Jul 22, 2015

God forbid that a nurse anticipates a need :sarcastic: of her patients. Better to waste your time going back and forth for the Saline. the syringe, etc. YOU HAVE THE TIME, doncha know.

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Mar 31, 2016

We're here to give advice to NON-medical personnel for their boyfriends/girlfriends? Did not know that was the purpose of us, but you learn something new every day!

My SO is a medical provider at a hospital (internist). He does a call shift to answer questions from nurses. He has NPs in his group as well. He was venting the other day and mentioned how he wasn't so short with the nurses when he first started, but now the phone has a bad connotation as he knows when it rings it's due to a problem he has to help with. It's silly when it's his job to answer, but he says he gets annoyed but he said he likes nurses who think critically and he said the ones who usually call tend to call for mundane reasons and he admitted his med group has started to see a pattern in the nurses who do keep calling because they choose not to figure out a problem themselves. They have NPs with their group as well. He also mentioned the NPs have started to get cranky with phone calls too even though some were the floor nurses at one point. Is it common when you call for help, to deal with the providers who are moody and what's a good way to remind them you call because it's their job to answer and they should try to be more understanding? NPs---can you relate to this? He said he's trying to remember it's his job to help and he wasn't always like this, but I guess when he feels the answer is right infront of your face and you still call for help-he feels it's a waste of his time. I informed him id get feedback from here-what would you guys want him and his colleagues to know regarding your position when you do call for advice? ..He's trying to work on getting past being short. It's not all the time just when he thinks phone call is unnecessary.