telephone orders

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Would you sign a telephone order that another nurse wrote and left flagged on your chart?

Excluding orders written by NP.

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Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

No. It should have been completed.

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Specializes in cardiac/medical.

I guess it depends on the nurse and the situation. If the other nurse took the order, then why wouldn't they sign the order?

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Specializes in Med Surg-Geriatrics.

The nurse should have completed the order did she/he even tell you about the order?

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Definitely not.

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If she took the order, then she signs it. Maybe she is hinting to you for you to call and get the order. In either case, you need to talk to her to find out what she did or did not do.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

Nope. I'd never sign off a telephone order I didn't take. Never.

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Specializes in LTC.

Nnope I wouldn't do it. If it wasn't documented it wasn't done.

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Specializes in onc, M/S, hospice, nursing informatics.

First, I agree that the nurse who took the order should sign it off. However, if it was an order that I could verify was done, why not sign it off? What's the big deal... or am I missing something?

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

No, I wouldn't.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

I guess i dont quite get it either. Why not sign it off?

For example, once we get a med order, it has to be scanned to pharmacy, and then pharmacy must program it into the scanning system and only THEN can the order be signed off once we confirm its correct. The other day @ change of shift, the pharmacy was 168 orders BEHIND. Drugs ended up being profiled @ around 2030. Should the offgoing nurse have waited?

I guess the real quesiton is, who has the responsilbity? If the other nurse wrote the TVO in the chart and signed her name with the docs as having taken it, isnt it the same as having a doc there writing the order? (I ask this b/c I dont know, not b.c i want to stir stuff up.:idea:)

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

I think that would be because there is a statiscally higher error rate with verbal(telephone) orders. Some doctors are impossible to understand, are in too big a hurry, or whatever. The nurse who takes the order needs to be absolutely sure she is hearing what the doctor is saying. An order can be carried out that was written incorrectly, so I wouldn't want to sign off on something I didn't hear.

If you sign for another nurse's order, also you are accepting another person's nursing judgement as your own. For instance, nurse A might think the order ((hypothetically) bordered on unsafe or worrisome, but go ahead with it anyway, and nurse B with the same information refused to give it all together. Hope that makes sense. Just some thoughts on it. :) :twocents:

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