Small town hospital

[All_Smiles_RN]

I recently transferred from a large teaching hospital to a small town one. One of their "rules" is that night shift must call the nursing supervisor after 2200 to get permission to call the dr. What kind of baloney is this?? I'm not one to follow ridiculus rules, and this is one of them! Anyone else have this "rule"?

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

I recently transferred from a large teaching hospital to a small town one. One of their "rules" is that night shift must call the nursing supervisor after 2200 to get permission to call the dr. What kind of baloney is this?? I'm not one to follow ridiculus rules, and this is one of them! Anyone else have this "rule"?

That's a weird rule. I work at a small town hospital and we definately don't do that. Last year or so they starting requiring Nursing Super to be informed of all admits by ER and for a while had them taking all admit orders by phone at night for new admits, I'm not sure if they're still doing that.

I agree, it sounds like balony, maybe they have cranky doctors there who are used to treating nurses like incompetant children.

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

I also work for a small town hospital and that is crazy---So let me get this straight, you need to call her, explain everything, answer all her questions, then with her permission, make the same call again and go through everything a 2nd time with the Dr???

Gee what a good use of time.

Sounds like too many nurses called the same dr too many nights in a row at 2am for a Tylenol order, and he is throwing a fit.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

What if you have a critical patient who requires frequent calls? The whole thing sounds totally impractical!

[shellsgogreen]

yikes - if i worked there, i would be fired in a flash, as that's one rule i'd break right away - what an unnecessary obstacle.

[Dolce, RN]

As if we WANT to call docs after 2200. I cringe at waking up docs and only do so if necessary. I certainly do not need the nursing super to be notified if I am going to call....

Sounds like they are treating nurses like children.

[AuntieRN]

My hospital is the same way. Then the supervisor calls all the floors to see if they need that doc then allows you to call him if she feels its neccesary. I dont recall ever hearing her say no though.

[RN1989]

I have seen this happen before. The nurses at that small hospital had never worked anywhere else. Their level of experience was pathetic, as was the education the hospital offered them. Due to their extremely poor judgement, they would call the docs for stupid stuff that could wait until morning. After the docs complained, all calls had to go through the sup to make sure the nurses weren't calling for stupid stuff like getting a diet order changed.

[imenid37]

I have seen this happen before. The nurses at that small hospital had never worked anywhere else. Their level of experience was pathetic, as was the education the hospital offered them. Due to their extremely poor judgement, they would call the docs for stupid stuff that could wait until morning. After the docs complained, all calls had to go through the sup to make sure the nurses weren't calling for stupid stuff like getting a diet order changed.

Where I work, many years ago this was the case on the med-surg floors. It was not because the nursing staff was composed of illiterate bumpkins, but rather because arrogant (big fish in a small pond docs) physicians didn't want to be disturbed after hours for any reason legitimate or not! At the time, (long before I worked there), nursing was still more beholding to the physician staff, rather than to their patients. The nurses taking care of the patients know them and need to make the calls. Physicians who do not like this sort of thing need to get some education so they can become podiatrists, chiropractors, or dermatologists. That way they won't get called during their beauty sleep.:angryfire

[fusster]

I work in a small hospital, but we do not have this rule. If doctors are the type that don't like to be bothered at night, then they make sure their home phone numbers aren't in our contact information database and they turn their pagers off at night. Most doctors just expect us to use good judgment before calling in the middle of the night. We have a house Dr. and standing orders, so if our pt has a HA or some minor problem there's no need to call to attending.

[abeachRN]

My hospital is the same way. Then the supervisor calls all the floors to see if they need that doc then allows you to call him if she feels its neccesary. I dont recall ever hearing her say no though.

this was exactly how it worked at the hospital i was at. We personally called other units to see if they needed the Dr, but the supervisor wanted to know what was going on with the pt and did want to make sure it was necessary to call the Dr in the middle of the night. We had more new grads on at nights, so it was appropriate in our hospital to speak with teh supervisor first

[sharlynn]

There is small and there is SMALL. I worked in a one doctor hospital a few years ago. There were no units, only one floor and we covered OB and ER too. I can see a new nurse having to clear a call with the DON, because she would be the one to face the wrath of the doctor if the call could have waited til morning.