Should I have written an order?

[ShayRN]

We had a patient transfer in from another area hospital on Saturday night. He had Lidocain and Amiodarone running, I was only aware of the Lidocain. The nurse to nurse said the amio was off at 8. So, I assumed it was off. When I spoke with the EP doc, I told him, looks like he was on Amio but its off, he said thats fine and d/c the Lido as well. I wrote the order to D/C the Lido, but didn't address the amio. As far as I was concerned it was off. So why d/c something that was not on, right? Well, I get a call from the social worker at home, yelling at me. She told me when the patient got to the unit he had the amio running and it was off without an order. She said it was in the transfer sheets. Now, there were about 150 pages of sheets that came over with this guy. I had no less than 8 admissions in an 8 hour shift. I trusted the nurse to nurse and the fact the admitting nurse told me that she needed an order to continue the Lidocain. She never said a word about the Amiodarone. So tell me, do you all think I made a mistake in not writing an order specifically addressing the Amiodarone? Would you write an order to d/c something you were under the impression was off?

[bethem]

We had a patient transfer in from another area hospital on Saturday night. He had Lidocain and Amiodarone running, I was only aware of the Lidocain. The nurse to nurse said the amio was off at 8. So, I assumed it was off. When I spoke with the EP doc, I told him, looks like he was on Amio but its off, he said thats fine and d/c the Lido as well. I wrote the order to D/C the Lido, but didn't address the amio. As far as I was concerned it was off. So why d/c something that was not on, right? Well, I get a call from the social worker at home, yelling at me. She told me when the patient got to the unit he had the amio running and it was off without an order. She said it was in the transfer sheets. Now, there were about 150 pages of sheets that came over with this guy. I had no less than 8 admissions in an 8 hour shift. I trusted the nurse to nurse and the fact the admitting nurse told me that she needed an order to continue the Lidocain. She never said a word about the Amiodarone. So tell me, do you all think I made a mistake in not writing an order specifically addressing the Amiodarone? Would you write an order to d/c something you were under the impression was off?

I guess the answer is - don't always trust your nurse to nurse, check for yourself. However if it's busy, I can see how that fell through the cracks.

[jmgrn65, RN]

Yes I would have written to d/c both, that is to cya, and that is what the doctor had said to do, if you called him about the amio then you should write what he had said. also always verify the orders don't go by what was said on report. Hope this helps.

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

The physician said, "D/c the lido as well". That to me means d/c both. So, yes, you should have written a d/c for the amio.

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

lidocaine and amiodarone? a little overkill right?