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Discussion

telephone orders

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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    • Featured Replies

    No. It should have been completed.

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    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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    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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    • Experts

    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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    • Experts

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

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

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    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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    • Guides

    No, I wouldn't.

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    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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    • Guides

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

    Excluding orders written by NP.

    Sign it as in how? we take TP orders, write who it was from, our name, read back. ex

    Colace 100 mg po TID

    T.O. Dr. So-and-so/ My Name RN R.B 2/7/10 1004

    then whomever checks that order on the chart signs it off. (makes sure it gets on the MAR kardex, etc...) If I am the one calling the Dr, I may get phone orders for patients that are not my own... but I put the order on the chart. I would not be the one that would follow up on those orders. The chart goes to the Unit clerk, then she gives it to the RN in charge of that patient to sign off. you have to sign that you took the order, but not that it was completed, since that could take hours.

    It would depend on the policy at your hospital, and how you do things.

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