Rant: Physician pagers!

[BridgetJones]

Anyone else feel like they can't get through a case without spending half the time answering pages? Today I did an operative laparoscopy for a ruptured ectopic and I was on the phone for most of the case with the floor and OB triage. The attending even asked me to call a lady at home...she was 6 mo. pregnant and having spotting and pressure. I felt really stuck...it's not like you can just ignore them...one page was about a lady with a BP of 78/45! But on the other hand, I'm the nurse for the patient in the OR, not the secretary for the doctor. I know I should just put it on speakerphone and stop relaying information and orders back and forth, but the docs all seem to get really annoyed when I put the phone on seaker and sometimes it is hard to hear. AHHH make it stop! My perfect OR would be one with no pagers!

[stormforce]

I'm not a US or OR nurse so please forgive me if I don't understand the intricacies of theatre nursing, I do work between the wards and theatres in an advanced practice role.

Where I work we have teams of theatre staff, the scrub nurse / assistant the nurse in charge of theatres and at least 2 runners who are not scrubbed and maybe more depending on how big the case is.

We would never expect the nurse who is scrubbed to answer a pager or phone, but because the doctors usually have more than one sick patient and do need to be contactable it is expected that one of the runners answers pages and phones. Just to make sure that there is no emergency / urgent situation with another patient. I would have no hesitation in contacting my surgeon in theatre to inform him of something that was happening on the ward, and yes I know it is an inconvenience to the theatre staff but there are things he needs to know.

If I get no response to pages I will put theatre scrubs on and go into theatre if I have to but this takes me away from a potentially sick patient so I would prefer to phone or page. Providing there were no catastrophies going on in theatre I would expect a member of the theatre staff to answer that and relay the message.

[Scrubby]

I'm not a US or OR nurse so please forgive me if I don't understand the intricacies of theatre nursing, I do work between the wards and theatres in an advanced practice role.

Where I work we have teams of theatre staff, the scrub nurse / assistant the nurse in charge of theatres and at least 2 runners who are not scrubbed and maybe more depending on how big the case is.

We would never expect the nurse who is scrubbed to answer a pager or phone, but because the doctors usually have more than one sick patient and do need to be contactable it is expected that one of the runners answers pages and phones. Just to make sure that there is no emergency / urgent situation with another patient. I would have no hesitation in contacting my surgeon in theatre to inform him of something that was happening on the ward, and yes I know it is an inconvenience to the theatre staff but there are things he needs to know.

If I get no response to pages I will put theatre scrubs on and go into theatre if I have to but this takes me away from a potentially sick patient so I would prefer to phone or page. Providing there were no catastrophies going on in theatre I would expect a member of the theatre staff to answer that and relay the message.

It's very hard when you're trying to advocate for your patient on the ward but we're trying to advocate for our patient on the table. As I said earlier IF I have the time I will answer a phone and ask if the message is urgent. If you're calling to see if patient X can have a suppository then I will not interrupt because it's not fair to my patient to distract a surgeon for such a minor issue. If your patient is deteriorating and you need to urgently let the surgeon know then I can relay it if it is appropriate to do so. It's amazing how many so called 'urgent' messages are things that can wait until the surgery is finished.

There are also times when people have expected me to act as the messenger for verbal drug orders. I don't get involved at all in case there is a disrepency. I don't do third party phone orders. I'm not risking my licence.

[RogueRN]

Pagers and cell phones are getting to be such a distraction (disrupting counting, etc.) that our healthcare system (not just hospital) might take action. They are thinking about piloting a project where surgeons and residents leave their pagers and cell phones at an "answering station" by the charge desk. If it is urgent, then they are called in the OR suite. Otherwise, forget it. I hope this happens!!!

[dlzk123]

Gosh I go through this always.We are a trauma center and residents and doctors want me to answer pagers and phones.Lately pages are on the phone so they want me to check all the texts including their wife's 😍😍 messages.I feel weird always.They won't leave the pagers before they scrub in and I have to search around their pants and try so hard to pull it out.God...I try to ignore most of the time and few minutes later surgeon is like what was that page🙄