Why is it all the other depts in the healthcare facility immediately notify the nurse of things that are not their job, but really aren't the nurses job either.
For example, we had a new admit whose telephone did not work. On admission I switched out the phones, still didn't work, must be something wrong with the line so I put i a work order for the faulty phone. New admission complained about the phone to everyone who walked into the room.
Got a PT waiting at the nurses station after I had been doing a 15 minute dressing change in a room. She had also been calling my phone while I was in the room.
"Your new admit is mad his phone doesn't work. Why didn't you pick up your phone?"
Me "I was doing a sterile dressing change" She gives clueless look. "Yes I know all about the phone"
Her "Well, did you try to switch out the phone"
Me "Yes, still didn't work so I put in a work order"
Her "Did you call x at x number? He's the one you need to call"
Me "If you knew who to call I wonder why you didn't do it yourself"
Other "I'll Tell the Nurse" issues,
Patient wheeling along the hallway has lost her croc shoe. It's about seven feet behind her. However, rather than giving the patient the shoe, it seems the nurse MUST be notified so she can do it.
People who don't have batteries in their remote controls. Nurses station doesn't have batteries,(we are not to be trusted with batteries, just lives and narcotics) so the reception desk has them. However, these people know this, the nurse MUST be notified so she can go and get a battery. People would rather hang around the nurses station doing nothing waiting for me to come back so I can walk the 40 yards to get it from the receptionist.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
what burns me up is when pharmacy doesn't have the med that doc ordered. or they have a question about the dosage ordered. why do i have to stop what i am doing to call the doctor? you can call too! i will even give you the number if it is too much trouble for you to find it. i have been in this situation before and sure enough if you call the doctor he is going to ask if such n such med is in stock or other things that i don't know but pharmacy does. it is a complete back and forth triangle that i do not need to be involved in. call the doc. get the order for the substitute med. come write the order yourself.
same goes for radiology testing. such n such test cannot be done for whatever reason. fine. call the doctor and let him know. this will prevent me from getting drilled by the doctor about why the machine is broken and exactly when the repair will be coming, etc... call him. y'all decide what the plan is and then call me back and update me.
i am tired of being the in between of go ask your mother, go ask your father circle.
this one seems like such a no-brainer, i've stopped participating. if every nurse takes a stand, hopefully we won't get time suckers like this anymore!
pharmacy wants to talk to me because the authorized prescriber didn't specify a route for the lasix. fine. the np's pager number is 555-1234, and no, it's not my problem that she hasn't called you back. when it becomes my problem -- the med is due and isn't available, for example -- that's when i'll become involved in your conversation.
microbiology wants me to tell the prescriber that the patient's sputum came back positive for mrsa. so then then want to put my name and title into the computer as the person they notified, and i'm supposed to call the prescriber, notify her and then put a note in the computer that i notified dr. staph aureus at 13:54. why don't they skip a phone call and a couple of notes in the electronic chart and just page the prescriber, whose pager number is right on the lab request? believe me, i'll find out about the mrsa -- either when i check the labs for myself or when the isolation cart appears! "no, sir. i won't give you my name and badge number, but i will give you the prescriber's pager number. use it."
cath lab wants to know why dr. imanidiot wants a right heart cath on mr. bent. why not just call dr. imanidiot and ask him, instead of calling me and asking me to ask him and then call back? dr. imanidiot's pager number, again, is right on the request -- but in case you cannot read it, his pager number is 555-9876. what? you want my name? it's stanley, and i'm the housekeeper. the nurse? no, she's too busy to come to the phone for stupid phone calls like this when you could resolve your problem far easier by just talking to the doctor. why yes, ma'am. i do answer the phone a lot and no ma'am, that isn't in my job description. but it sure beats waiting for the nurse to finish cleaning up poop and answer it while the secretary is on e-bay.
by far my favorite call of this nature is "ask dr. nincompoop why he ordered a renal consult when there's no good reason for it, and then call me back."
"why no, dr. nephron. i'm not going to get involved there. dr. noncompoop's pager number is posted on the hospital intranet -- please look it up and call him yourself."
if every rn refused to play the game, the game would soon stop!
Never mind, come nurses week they'll give you a wilted rose and a lunch bag with their logo on it to show just how much they respect and love their nurses Seriously, I'm so sorry this happened to you.
local hospitals this year gave nothing......said it was the economy.....
this one seems like such a no-brainer, i've stopped participating. if every nurse takes a stand, hopefully we won't get time suckers like this anymore!
pharmacy wants to talk to me because the authorized prescriber didn't specify a route for the lasix. fine. the np's pager number is 555-1234, and no, it's not my problem that she hasn't called you back. when it becomes my problem -- the med is due and isn't available, for example -- that's when i'll become involved in your conversation.
microbiology wants me to tell the prescriber that the patient's sputum came back positive for mrsa. so then then want to put my name and title into the computer as the person they notified, and i'm supposed to call the prescriber, notify her and then put a note in the computer that i notified dr. staph aureus at 13:54. why don't they skip a phone call and a couple of notes in the electronic chart and just page the prescriber, whose pager number is right on the lab request? believe me, i'll find out about the mrsa -- either when i check the labs for myself or when the isolation cart appears! "no, sir. i won't give you my name and badge number, but i will give you the prescriber's pager number. use it."
cath lab wants to know why dr. imanidiot wants a right heart cath on mr. bent. why not just call dr. imanidiot and ask him, instead of calling me and asking me to ask him and then call back? dr. imanidiot's pager number, again, is right on the request -- but in case you cannot read it, his pager number is 555-9876. what? you want my name? it's stanley, and i'm the housekeeper. the nurse? no, she's too busy to come to the phone for stupid phone calls like this when you could resolve your problem far easier by just talking to the doctor. why yes, ma'am. i do answer the phone a lot and no ma'am, that isn't in my job description. but it sure beats waiting for the nurse to finish cleaning up poop and answer it while the secretary is on e-bay.
by far my favorite call of this nature is "ask dr. nincompoop why he ordered a renal consult when there's no good reason for it, and then call me back."
"why no, dr. nephron. i'm not going to get involved there. dr. noncompoop's pager number is posted on the hospital intranet -- please look it up and call him yourself."
if every rn refused to play the game, the game would soon stop!
:yeahthat:
ruby: i am so not worthy! you really hit the nail on the head!
You two have just mentioned my BIGGEST pet peeve!! This three way circle of calling doom I seem to always get caught up in. I have just recently started requesting that these depts call the Dr. themselves. I have also encouraged other RNs on my floor to do the same. Most of the time the person will comply if I put it to them nicely and have the number handy.
Just today, I got a dose of neurontin ordered that the pharmacist thought was too high. She actually asked if it would be ok if she called the doc and clarified the dose with him. I almost fell out of my chair! "Yes! Please do call! Here is the number!"
Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Hospice,IV Therapy.
I work in home hospice and palliative care. One day I was doing a hospice admission(they take hours) and it was late in the day. A physical therapist called my cellphone to tell me that a palliative pt of mine had a question about his blood sugars and insulin(he was to be keeping in touch with his pcp about this) and would I call the pt and then call his physician since I was in "charge of his meds". Things got very emotional during the hospice admission and the family had to step outside so I took the opportunity to check my voicemail and called the physical therapist back to tell her that there was no way I would be able to do that and to tell the pt to call his pcp like he was supposed to. She went off on me and I proceeded to tell her that no, I was not in charge of his meds, his physician was and that I was not going to call the patient, then call the physician who would not be calling me back till hours after I was off duty, and then call the pt on my offtime and that at the present time I was in the middle of a very difficult hospice admission. They just don't have a clue sometimes!:angryfire
this one seems like such a no-brainer, i've stopped participating. if every nurse takes a stand, hopefully we won't get time suckers like this anymore!
pharmacy wants to talk to me because the authorized prescriber didn't specify a route for the lasix. fine. the np's pager number is 555-1234, and no, it's not my problem that she hasn't called you back. when it becomes my problem -- the med is due and isn't available, for example -- that's when i'll become involved in your conversation.
microbiology wants me to tell the prescriber that the patient's sputum came back positive for mrsa. so then then want to put my name and title into the computer as the person they notified, and i'm supposed to call the prescriber, notify her and then put a note in the computer that i notified dr. staph aureus at 13:54. why don't they skip a phone call and a couple of notes in the electronic chart and just page the prescriber, whose pager number is right on the lab request? believe me, i'll find out about the mrsa -- either when i check the labs for myself or when the isolation cart appears! "no, sir. i won't give you my name and badge number, but i will give you the prescriber's pager number. use it."
cath lab wants to know why dr. imanidiot wants a right heart cath on mr. bent. why not just call dr. imanidiot and ask him, instead of calling me and asking me to ask him and then call back? dr. imanidiot's pager number, again, is right on the request -- but in case you cannot read it, his pager number is 555-9876. what? you want my name? it's stanley, and i'm the housekeeper. the nurse? no, she's too busy to come to the phone for stupid phone calls like this when you could resolve your problem far easier by just talking to the doctor. why yes, ma'am. i do answer the phone a lot and no ma'am, that isn't in my job description. but it sure beats waiting for the nurse to finish cleaning up poop and answer it while the secretary is on e-bay.
by far my favorite call of this nature is "ask dr. nincompoop why he ordered a renal consult when there's no good reason for it, and then call me back."
"why no, dr. nephron. i'm not going to get involved there. dr. noncompoop's pager number is posted on the hospital intranet -- please look it up and call him yourself."
if every rn refused to play the game, the game would soon stop!
how true you are. i never thought of it quite this way. so true. this is why i lasted only 9 months in med/surg-i couldn't handle being the clueless middleman and being ripped for not knowing everything.
Just wanted to plug for CNA's too... RNs totally get dumped on, but sometimes we do too! I read the post about the LPN taking 10 min to find another CNA to help the CNA boost the pt instead of doing it herself. That's happened to me more times than I can count. I've also had a nurse come out of Mr. So-n-so's room, hunt me down in another pt's room to tell me So-n-so needs: a glass of water, a warm blanket, his b/p checked, or to go potty. WHAT?!?!
Oh yeah, I know you're busy. I can see if it takes 10min to take him potty and you have a med to give... but a cup of water? You walked past the galley/ blanket warmer 3 times while you were tracking ME down!
Rubyvee.......how true, and I am behind you on that 100%.
Isnt it too bad that we can barely stick up for ourselves for fear of getting reprimanded, "coached", written up, suspended, or just getting fired because managements definition of not "playing the game" is "you aren't a team player."
Ruby, I call the doc...*evil grin*. And I tell them, "Gee, the pharmacy called looking for you, can you call X at 555-IDIOT." They don't want to talk to the doc, too bad. The doc can write a med order, the pharmacy can do a clarification order, I can't do so much as order an aspirin, and our pharmacists make a freaking fortune and half the time, we can't find our meds on weekends because they leave at 5. I've been in enough other hospitals to know a) they don't have as many pharmacists per bed as we do, and b) they manage to staff their pharmacy 24/7.
Seriously, I'm so sorry this happened to you.
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
this one seems like such a no-brainer, i've stopped participating. if every nurse takes a stand, hopefully we won't get time suckers like this anymore!
pharmacy wants to talk to me because the authorized prescriber didn't specify a route for the lasix. fine. the np's pager number is 555-1234, and no, it's not my problem that she hasn't called you back. when it becomes my problem -- the med is due and isn't available, for example -- that's when i'll become involved in your conversation.
microbiology wants me to tell the prescriber that the patient's sputum came back positive for mrsa. so then then want to put my name and title into the computer as the person they notified, and i'm supposed to call the prescriber, notify her and then put a note in the computer that i notified dr. staph aureus at 13:54. why don't they skip a phone call and a couple of notes in the electronic chart and just page the prescriber, whose pager number is right on the lab request? believe me, i'll find out about the mrsa -- either when i check the labs for myself or when the isolation cart appears! "no, sir. i won't give you my name and badge number, but i will give you the prescriber's pager number. use it."
cath lab wants to know why dr. imanidiot wants a right heart cath on mr. bent. why not just call dr. imanidiot and ask him, instead of calling me and asking me to ask him and then call back? dr. imanidiot's pager number, again, is right on the request -- but in case you cannot read it, his pager number is 555-9876. what? you want my name? it's stanley, and i'm the housekeeper. the nurse? no, she's too busy to come to the phone for stupid phone calls like this when you could resolve your problem far easier by just talking to the doctor. why yes, ma'am. i do answer the phone a lot and no ma'am, that isn't in my job description. but it sure beats waiting for the nurse to finish cleaning up poop and answer it while the secretary is on e-bay.
by far my favorite call of this nature is "ask dr. nincompoop why he ordered a renal consult when there's no good reason for it, and then call me back."
"why no, dr. nephron. i'm not going to get involved there. dr. noncompoop's pager number is posted on the hospital intranet -- please look it up and call him yourself."
if every rn refused to play the game, the game would soon stop!