I just made my first visit on call. I received a call about a leaking foley catheter, initially the operator said the foley was out. When I called the patient he said "my catheter is out, its leaking" I asked him when was the foley placed, what reason, when is it supposed to come out, when is his next dr appt. He answers "it was placed a few days ago because I couldn't pee when I was in the hospital and i see my dr on tuesday to take it out" Today is saturday btw.
Anyways since we hardly get calls to actually visit patients while on call there really isn't any set policies/procedures or anything. We basically get a call from the answering service giving us the patient name, number and issue. On hand at home, I don't have any charts or any patient information. Before heading off to see the pt I check my email to see if his name is listed as one of our recent (last 2 months) admissions. I don't see his name, but since I only work per diem maybe just never met him.... I call my on call director just to confirm whether or not we have this patient on our census but she doesnt answer, i leave a message and she didn't call me back.
I arrive at the patients house and his foley is fine, he just didnt close it completely after emptying it. I ask him where is is paperwork(admission agreement, consent, visit notes) from other visits and he says "your the first nurse to come visit me"! Apperently he was discharged over a week ago and has NOT BEEN ADMITTED!!!!
I am now very upset, because I feel like I was ignored by my director . In retrospect I realize my fault in the issue. I should have asked the patient when did we last see him or something like that. But when I got the call, all I could think about was if the patient was ok, i thought I could only determine that by going to see him.
I was only in the home for maybe 5 minutes, when I left I texted my director and told her what happened and asked if she was aware of the patient. She immediately texted back and said "he's never returned our calls to set up admission and his Dr never agreed to sign orders".... NOW IM REALLY MADE:madface:
This was a really long vent, I had to get it out. I plan on sending a nice email to my director and administrator demanding a on call policy and a list of current census for on call nurses. I refuse to take call again until they set something in place. I don't even think I can be paid for this visit????
I am known for being a little dramatic, please let me know if you all feel like I am overeacting??
Any ideas, advice, similar situations.
thanks for reading :)
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I just made my first visit on call. I received a call about a leaking foley catheter, initially the operator said the foley was out. When I called the patient he said "my catheter is out, its leaking" I asked him when was the foley placed, what reason, when is it supposed to come out, when is his next dr appt. He answers "it was placed a few days ago because I couldn't pee when I was in the hospital and i see my dr on tuesday to take it out" Today is saturday btw.
Anyways since we hardly get calls to actually visit patients while on call there really isn't any set policies/procedures or anything. We basically get a call from the answering service giving us the patient name, number and issue. On hand at home, I don't have any charts or any patient information. Before heading off to see the pt I check my email to see if his name is listed as one of our recent (last 2 months) admissions. I don't see his name, but since I only work per diem maybe just never met him.... I call my on call director just to confirm whether or not we have this patient on our census but she doesnt answer, i leave a message and she didn't call me back.
I arrive at the patients house and his foley is fine, he just didnt close it completely after emptying it. I ask him where is is paperwork(admission agreement, consent, visit notes) from other visits and he says "your the first nurse to come visit me"! Apperently he was discharged over a week ago and has NOT BEEN ADMITTED!!!!
I am now very upset, because I feel like I was ignored by my director . In retrospect I realize my fault in the issue. I should have asked the patient when did we last see him or something like that. But when I got the call, all I could think about was if the patient was ok, i thought I could only determine that by going to see him.
I was only in the home for maybe 5 minutes, when I left I texted my director and told her what happened and asked if she was aware of the patient. She immediately texted back and said "he's never returned our calls to set up admission and his Dr never agreed to sign orders".... NOW IM REALLY MADE:madface:
This was a really long vent, I had to get it out. I plan on sending a nice email to my director and administrator demanding a on call policy and a list of current census for on call nurses. I refuse to take call again until they set something in place. I don't even think I can be paid for this visit????
I am known for being a little dramatic, please let me know if you all feel like I am overeacting??
Any ideas, advice, similar situations.
thanks for reading :)