Memers

Ours is also in EMR form, but it is not short and sweet at all. We can not put just abnormal screening mammo, they want the date and what the impression was, as well as that info for any follow up images, the date of and full path report, if they had surgery date, path, and Dr. who did the surgery, if they had cz what kind, how many cycles, when was cycle 1, when was the last cycle, ect.. they want everything typed out in story form, "it should read like a book". Breast and prostate pts dont usually take to long to do but if you have say a melanoma that goes back 10 yrs it can take a few hours to write cause you have to go through 10 yrs of notes to see what cz they had 7 yrs ago or what have you, if the pt was in remission for 6 yrs you go through 6 yrs of notes and document that pt was in remission until... this is in addition to nurse ed, assessment of pts having treatment (skin issues ect..), rooming pts for MD visits, phone triage, and prior auths. They have to be written and ready to go prior to the pts arrival even if we have to stay after hours to write them.

I am fairly new to oncology, I have been working in Radiation Oncology for a little over a yr now, and may I say the learning curve is HUGE, not only am I trying to learn radiation but also oncology at the same time. The problem I am having is with some of the things the nurses are asked to do that seem to do nothing more than make the doctors job easier, but are being presented as "pt care". An example is something we have to do called a pt assessment which is done before we even lay eyes or hands on the pt, basically for every new pt the nurse has to sit down and go through the pts chart prior to the pts first consult visit with the Dr. and write a story about the pts diagnosis and anything that has been done since diagnosis. Our dept sees 40-60 new pts each month. We do this so the doctor does not have to research his own pt, we are the only dept in the whole hospital who does this. When we question it we are told it is giving good pt care, am I wrong in feeling this is good doctor care, not good pt care? I just do not understand how making your nurses spend 20+ hours a week writting what will end up being the Dr.'s dictation is better for the pt than having the Dr. go through the chart themself. I am just looking for some advice to see if I need to change my presepective or maybe my career. I just feel making a nurse stay 2 hours late to basically write a paper for a Dr is almost abuse of nurse staff. These are only a fraction of our job, we have to squeeze in the time to write them in between rooming pts for doctor visits, doing nurse teaches, and dealing with any pt issues that come up during the day. The sad fact is that usually we have to stay late to write these even though the Dr. gets to go home. I have been told that this is "standard practice" for Rad Onc and I just wonder if it is true.