She tried to give me orders!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Postpartum.

It has been a couple days since this happened and I thought that I would have cooled off about it by now, but I am still kinda ticked off so I decided to get it out here.

I work on a mother/baby floor and we take gyn surgeries as well. Some of the gyn surgeries have no business on our floor, but that is another rant all together.

The other day I had a pretty complicated (for our floor anyway) gyn patient and we were trying to rule out PE as the pt was having SOB and needed O2 to keep her sats up. The doctor asked me to call in some lab results as well as fax them to his office..... no problem so I fax the results and then call to let him know they are on their way. His (I think, I never really did identify what she did in his office) secretary answers the phone and says she will tell him the results are there and was there any message for him as he was in with a pt. I told her to point out the PO2 to him and asked her to have him call me with any new orders.

About 30 minutes later I get a page ovehead to tell me that I have a doctor's office on the phone for me. I run to the desk, thinking that this is Dr. X going to give me new orders and I get the same lady on the phone and she says that she has some orders for me from Dr. X. I am instantly confused and asked her her name. She gives me her name and and I ask whether she is an RN or LVN. She says and I quote "I'm just his girl."

I politely tell her that I cannot recieve orders from her if she is not licensed and she LAUGHED at me and snorted. It immediately ticked me off. I said, " Look I'm not trying to be a jerk, it is hospital policy that I cannot take orders from you, so I will either hold for the doctor or you can have him call me back when he is finished." She says, "FINE! Hold on!" I wanted to hang up right then, but I waited. Dr. X gets on the phone and very politely gives me his orders. So, this leads me to believe that he KNEW that he wasn't supposed to give her orders to give to me, but did it anyway.

UGH! I'm really ticked off. Policy states that we can take orders second hand from a licensed nurse as long as it is documented affectively. It comes in handy when a doc is in sugery and you have an emergency. The doc doesn't have to break sterility and the nurse can relay orders so the emergent pt is taken care of. Seriously though.....she really thought it was ludicrus that I would npt take orders from her.....Does she know what kind of legal trouble she could put the doc not to mention myself in? And thank god I asked her her title before I took orders down.

I just had to get this out.....I swear pretty soon these docs will be giving the visitors their orders and wondering why we aren't carrying them out. UGH!:banghead:

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

I had this happen once, too. Got a phone call from someone at the doctor's office with a telephone order. I asked her name, and she gave me her first name, so I asked if she had a last name. She gave it reluctantly, and then I asked if she was a nurse or what. She said she just worked at the doctor's office. I told her that I could not take telephone orders from her since she wasn't the doctor. I never did get a phone call from the MD, so the orders didn't get implemented until he came in to round the next morning. Fortunately, they weren't urgent orders anyway.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I used to give orders all the time as a tech in an MD office - because the MD said so and because I was never told not to. Maybe she did it out of ignorance. She cannot claim ignorance now.

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I used to give orders all the time as a tech in an MD office - because the MD said so and because I was never told not to. Maybe she did it out of ignorance. She cannot claim ignorance now.

They will do it if they can get away with it. I hear secretaries on the phone giving pharmacies orders all the time. The secretary is not breaking the rules, the doc and the person accepting the orders are breaking the rules. If a mistake is made the licensed people involved will take the fall. Yes it has happened to me and YES I refused to take the order.

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i honestly believe the secretary was innocent and didn't know she couldn't relay orders.

i also believe there's a darned good chance the md didn't know either.

many of them actually have no clue as to the regs we adhere to.

now the doc knows.

leslie

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I have found that whenever I point something such as this out to a lay person, I usually meet with some form of negativity. Never has anyone agreed with my explanation. Most often, I will be told outright that they have done this with other nurses and why am I being so (insert appropriate word). I just hold my stand and will discuss the issue only to the point that they understand that I am not going to give in to their unreasonable demands. I've actually had people come back at me later to let me know that so and so, another nurse, was quite happy to accommodate them. So be it.

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Specializes in NICU.

She very well could have been innocent and not have known, but the fact that she "LAUGHED .... and snorted" was incredibly unprofessional, and that's what would have ticked me off.

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She very well could have been innocent and not have known, but the fact that she "LAUGHED .... and snorted" was incredibly unprofessional, and that's what would have ticked me off.

I agree. I really detest unnecessary insolence in dealing with others in the workplace. There is no place for it. And people wonder why they develop poor reputations at work.

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Specializes in Postpartum.

The laughing and the FINE! Hold ON! was what ticked me off. An "I'm sorry I didn't realize, I'll get the MD." would have been fine. There was this arrogance in her voice, like I couldn't possibly know more than she did. UGH. At the moment I really didn't care if she knew more than me.....i just wanted to take care of this patient and not put myself in legal trouble in the process. Now though the arrogance gets to me. It's stupid that it does, but it does all the same.

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You handled the situation properly. Hopefully the MD learned something here. They were polite on the phone so they didn't know or did and now know it won't be acceptable in the future where you work. The secretary is just rude.

It's something all of us do at my job as well. If everyone is consistent it makes it so much easier for those that follow the guidelines so you don't hear, "So and so did it." I always want to reply, "If so and so wants to lose their license that's on them not me" but I refrain. :D

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

I was the first nurse hired in a cardiologists office for just that reason. there had been an assistant there and had been there for 15 yrs. The doc hired a nurse because he got in trouble for letting an asst call and give orders. The first time I heard her give orders over the phone I reminded her that she couldn't do that anymore. She had been told that when I first came on. Anyway she exploded and began screaming at me. Both docs and the officemanager came to the back just about the time she threw and hit me with a chart.(Paper)

It went flying everywhere. The office manager wasn't going to fire her and the older doc was gonna let it slide too. The newer doc said "Oh no she is going" and told me if they didn't fire her, for me to file charges. This was in front of everyone too. they let her take an early retirement.

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hey,

for what its worth, i think you did the right thing in not taking orders from an unlicensed nurse or medical assistant. i think it was right that you asked her for her title and held your ground til the doc came on the phone to give you verbal orders. after all it would have got you and that doc in trouble...

so again i commend you for doing the right thing!! you go girl!!

good luck to you!

jadu1106

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