how to talk to doctors?

I am a new grad - on week 3 out of 6 of my orientation on a very busy/heavy resp/tele unit. I am orienting on day shift, but will eventually switch to night. There's a chance they might keep my on days, but I am so scared because I know I will need to go to rounds and doctors will be there more often.

One of my biggest fears right now is how and when to talk to the doctors I've worked 7 shifts already, only called the doctor once. 99% of the time my preceptor just go ahead and talk to them then let me know what happened, often time I am not there when he speak to the MD or I didn't even know he was planning on calling them - because he think talking to doctor is the "easy thing" I should focus on not being behind d/t charting or giving med.

My preceptor tell me, whenever you see doctor - go listen to them talking to your patient, or if you see them on the floor, just go talk to them about your patient. He made it seem so easy, and kept on saying "it's not scary, you just talk to them."

But

1. "Just talk to them" - talk about what exactly and how? How do you initiate the conversation about your patient after "Hi Doc, how are you?"

2. If I want to find out what's the plan for the patient - how do I ask the doctor? or how to find out what's on their mind after they speak to the patient.. I feel simply walking up to them and say "Hi doctor, so what is your plan for Ms. _________?" sounds.. just awkward, yet I am not sure how to break the ice or make it flow better. Would they think -- why don't you go read the chart after I put in the order?

3. I often see a doctor in the room but I don't know their name, what their specialty is, if they are the primary, or specialist? I really want to find out but I also don't know exactly how? I mean I introduce myself all the time to people on the floor, PT/OT/RT, but when I know it is a doctor it's like I lost all social skills all the sudden somehow... what do you do in situation like that? What exactly do you say and introduce yourself and find out who the doctor is? I feel I will sound stupid if I go, "Hi Doctor, my name is ____, I am the nurse for _____ -- what if your name? and what is your specialty?" I feel I should know!!

4. When doctor come into the room they ask "how is the patient?" what do they want to hear? I often don't know what to say, I feel it's either I'm caught off guard sometime or I just gave them useless information that they don't seem to care at all from their look. L

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I really am frustrated with myself about this problem, I feel speaking with doctors is something I should know how to, since it's big part of nursing, but it's really scary for me. asking my nurse with the answer "just talk to them, they don't bite" didn't help me much..

I know each doctor has different personality and preference to be talked to, but I really appreciate if you could help me with more specific information such as give me examples on exactly how you would speak to the doctor? like a sample conversation of when you see the doctor on the floor, or what you say when you see a new doctor, how to ask about what's their plan after they see the patient? Because sometimes I don't always get to stay in the room to listen or sometimes I simply didn't catch what they were saying...