Office Nurses!!!

[Sl1011]

I start my new job next month as an RN at a large family practice, and this will be my first job as a nurse. If you work at a doctor's office, please tell me what your day is like. I have an idea of what goes on, but I would love to hear from a nurse that works there :)

[jamieslovingmom]

Hi,

I work in a smallish family practice office as an LPN. I take vitals and history, do telephone triage, do A LOT of computer input work (putting in vitals, prescriptions, phone notes, immunization records, etc.), assist the providers with minor procedures in the office, administer medications and breathing treatments, dress wounds, do in house labs (UA's, cultures, BG's, etc.). Help calm down the doctor.

As an LPN, I do not do med refills myself as you may be doing...I route all of that to the provider. I will call in doctor approved meds, however. Some practices have the nurses do their own blood draws in house, but we have a phlebotomist from the hospital who does ours for us. We do finger stick blood labs ourselves, of course.

HTH. If you have other questions, let me know. Congratulations on your new job! You will love it. :)

[PatMac10,RN, RN]

I've always imagined working in a Office at least once when I become a nurse.

[tewdles, RN]

If you are an RN working in a largish family practice you should expect to be doing a great deal of teaching.

[missjennmb]

I work for a medical clinic, the only difference perhaps being that we get grants to care for the homeless at one of our clinics (but not all 4 for the most part) so that may factor in to the sheer amount of paperwork.

Each doctor generally has 2 nurses - 1 for paperwork, 1 for intake. Our intake nurses put patients into the room, take bp/weight/temp/height/hr and o2 sat and peak flow if they're having breathing issues. They also do a lot of breathing treatments, finger stick blood sugar/HIV/hemoglobin, urinalysis, setting up rooms for paps and procedures, ear flushes, and more. We also do some med related things, collecting and distributing meds from sample closet and med assistance programs (all overseen/ordered by the provider)

Our paperwork nurse does referrals, calls in meds, does pre-auths for meds, radiology referrals, getting back/entering reports, taking calls, doing a lot of triage and "nurse visits". We also do paperwork for a few things that are processed through grants, which is a pretty drawn out process.

Because I'm at our homeless clinic now, we see a lot of knife wounds, random assault and alcohol related accidents etc, but I'm sure you get your share of drug seekers, chest pain, etc at private clinics as well.

I love what I do and where I work, and I can't imagine working in any but this kind of setting. Hopefully I will never have to. :)

[LACA, BSN, LPN, RN]

I worked at a fairly large family medicine office before taking my current position as an elementary school nurse. There were 7 doctors, 1 PA, and 5 NPs. We had inhouse xray and labs, as well as a phlebotomist. We also did colonoscopies and vasectomies in house. My day consisted of putting patients in the rooms, vitals, assisting with minor procedures (paps, KOH/Wet Preps, suturing, skin lesion removal, etc) There was a lot of calling in RX refills and referrals and paperwork, but most of our stuff was on the computer. I enjoyed the work and interaction with the patients, but had a lot of issues with management and the way they did things....

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Busy! You will perhaps greet and do VS, place pt in the room and provide them with a gown or sheet, make sure the correct chart is with the correct patient, maybe help with shots, labs, referrals, dress wounds, guess it depends on what type of practice this is. Kids? Gyn? Geriatrics? Int Med? Surg? Always make sure the labs go on the right charts. Answer phones, make return appointments. Nice work for an RN, I'd think.