Since when is it my responsibility to...

[nrsang97]

Reoprt labs for another nurses patient because I took the phone call from the lab? I got a nasty gram from my manager today telling me I didn't record that I reported a critical value. I did take the K of 7 from the lab, but reported it to the nurse taking care of the pt and the nurse she was reporting off to. It is their responsibility to report and record, NOT MINE. My manager didn't send the email to either one of them, just me. That shows she never looked to see I was not even assigned to that room. Guess I get the crap for being courteous and taking a result so the lab wouldn't have to call back.

[Flo., BSN, RN]

At my facility it is the responsibility of the nurse who took the call from lab to record it in the chart and record what actions were taken. Frequently that action is that primary RN was notified. I don't call the MD unless the primary requests it. We all carry phones but sometimes when you are in the middle of something you can't answer it.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I've taken the lab call when my fellow nurse was busy. Have honestly never had another nurse throw me under the bus by saying I didn't tell them. Can't remember a time when the nurse I reported to, didn't take care of the problem.

If the OP reported to two nurses, and neither one of them addressed the issue, I think there's a problem with staff. How could anyone ignore a K+ level of 7?

It was not an ignored K of 7. The pt was about to recieve bedside dialysis, and previous level of 7.4 was recorded in the ER before admit to our ICU. No one said I didn't tell them. My name was recorded by lab as K of 7 reported to nrsang97 @1925 on the critical value report. Management looks to see if a note was made that MD notified in the computer charting. I did not make a note in the computerized chart that RN notified, as I have never had this issue before.

[Vespertinas]

Curious here, does the lab also inform the nurse of the critical value? I think it is awesome that they page the MD themselves and that certainly makes sense, but if I was the RN at the bedside I would sure want to know about it too.

No, they don't inform the RN. It was our responsibility as we saw fit to check the labs (you DO get a little alert on the computer if a critical value resulted) though it could go ignored. But ultimately, the RNs (unless they had a protocol) were not the ones treating electrolyte abnormalities so they were not the ones to primarily notify.

[Vespertinas]

also said JACO, and my pet peeve is people that don't realize that they've been "Joint Commission" for YEARS now.

They probably changed their name because people kept getting JCAHO wrong in the first place.