Most ridiculous question from a nurse while on call

[toxic-megacolon]

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What really boils my blood is when a nurse pages in the middle of the night saying "the patient wants to talk to a doctor" and when I ask what the patient wants specifically, they just say "I don't know." It would take them 2 seconds to ask the patient that, and 90% of the time its something simple that the nurses can handle/answer.

 

[gasgirl0610]

Around the 40th (around 2 am!!!) of about 60 pages I recieved on night float a few days ago:

"Doctor, I noticed the patient has vaginal discharge with very foul odor"

"Is there any blood?"

"No"

"Is she in pain?"

"No"

"Is this something that can wait until the primary team returns in the morning"

"I guess so"

And NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, my coat does not say OB/GYN!!!!!!😡 😡 😡
Of course I was not asleep, there is no sleep to be had. I was just working up a patient with new T wave inversions and rising troponin. Vaginal discharge???????????????????

 

[u_r_my_serenity]

Happened to my friend recently:

4am page:
[nurse]: Mr. X is constipated.
[doc]: When was the last time he had a bowel movement?
[nurse] Let me ask him...
[nurse] Yesterday.

 

[DiveMD]

A resident I work with got paged one evening...

Ring... ring...
Nurse: "5A"
Doctor: "Doctor ___ returning a page."
Nurse: "Hello doctor. Is Ms. ____ your patient?"
Doctor: "Yes..."
Nurse: "What is her code status?"
Doctor: "Full, I believe... why?"
<click>
Seconds later on the overhead:
"Code BLUE, 5A... Code Blue, 5A"

😱

BUll ****!

 

[augmel]

We have text pagers, which I love. But sometimes I get one worth saving.

"patient having fibromyalgia muscle attack! please come stat."

 

[Whodathunkit]

We have text pagers, which I love. But sometimes I get one worth saving.

"patient having fibromyalgia muscle attack! please come stat."

See the thread in Family Med where we were just discussing fibromyalgia.

 

[Winged Scapula]

What really boils my blood is when a nurse pages in the middle of the night saying "the patient wants to talk to a doctor" and when I ask what the patient wants specifically, they just say "I don't know." It would take them 2 seconds to ask the patient that, and 90% of the time its something simple that the nurses can handle/answer.

yeah, ranks right up there with the family that wants to speak to a doctor urgently at some middle of the night hour, and you're the covering physician. The request is always by some family member who is never around and is never an emergency. The nurses either never ask what it is they want to ask, or seemingly don't suggest that the question is more appropriate for the day light hours.🙄

 

[ekydrd]

yeah, ranks right up there with the family that wants to speak to a doctor urgently at some middle of the night hour, and you're the covering physician. The request is always by some family member who is never around and is never an emergency. The nurses either never ask what it is they want to ask, or seemingly don't suggest that the question is more appropriate for the day light hours.🙄

I have that happen on at least two call nights a week. It's usually a family member who works during the day and can't come to visit until evening. They don't understand the whole "cross-cover" thing and can get very upset when I tell them I don't know much about their loved one's condition and that they should call in the morning to talk to the primary team.

It is tough, but a little understanding and compassion can go a long way. I was recently on VA wards and had spent the day dealing with my own difficult to manage patients, so when nursing paged me to tell me Mr. Soandso was agitated and the family wanted to talk to me, I was a little irked. But after reviewing my check out sheet (each team checks out all the pt's including meds, allergies, reason for admission and code status) I noted that the pt was terminal and that hospice had been consulted but had not yet rounded on the pt, and per the pt he wanted to be DNR. I called the on call hospice fellow and got some advice from her regarding what to say. I went to the room and spent about 45 minutes talking to the family and the pt. He had been unable to eat at admission and had an NG tube in. He wanted it out, the family wanted it in, so we had a long talk about prognosis, and what to expect should we pull the tube and he not eat or drink anything, that he was experiencing terminal agitation, and wasn't experiencing hunger at this point. This is basically the same discussion they would have had with hospice the next morning.

They finally agreed that he should be DNR and to let us remove the tube, but when nursing came in to pull it (hospital policy, nursing places the NG, they pull the NG unless it's an emergency) he refused to allow her to do it. Then demanded to be discharged home (he lived 2 hours away). His daughter and son-in-law were in the room, but did not have transportation, and his wife didn't drive at night and was already at home, so we convinced him to stay one more night and go home in the morning. The pt finally went to sleep and visitors took a taxi to their hotel to get some rest. 3 hours later nursing called me to inform me they thought the pt had passed. Sure enough he had, so I had to call the family back, including the wife to inform them.

The moral of this story is that while I didn't know the pt or the family well, I did take the time to talk to them because the nurse requested I do so. She knew the family and pt way better than I did and felt they needed the support and encouragement to make the decision to allow the pt to go peacefully.

 

[Hurricane]

This is not really the nurses' fault, but I'm rotating on the general neurology service this month, and someone sent a list of pager numbers to the nurses station that incorrectly lists me on the stroke service, so I keep getting paged about stroke patients I know nothing about. And I've explained a dozen or so times that it's a mistake, yet nobody has fixed it on the list, so the pages keep coming. I think tomorrow I am going to go on Cross My Name Off The Stroke Service List Rounds...

 

[Stable asystole]

I have heard all the tails of stupid pages at horrible hours (and believe them), so I decided I would try to stay ahead of the curve. I was responsible for a ton of patients, and the pages had to be made most of the time, but not stat. I had a great idea after one night of wanting throw my pager out the window (it was going off every 5-10 minutes). I let it be know that I would be strolling down each ward, from the top floor to the bottom, every 2 hours, untill 1 am. I kept this up for a while, and the word got around and most if not all the pages ended, the charts were out, and literally the nurses lined up and I just wrote the orders and was back to the intern room in 30 min. This gave me time to pee, eat, or take a power nap, whatever.

Well, one night I just was tired after a bad scene in the ICU, lets just say I think I got all my proceedures in one night. I went back to the intern room and crashed, I got to sleep for 30 minutes and then my pager went off like mad. Some were for problems, but most were, where was I, was I OK, did I need help, could they bring me anything. I was touched, and cranky, but I had to smile, I am not sure who had who trained, but for my money it was as smooth and problem free turn at bat as possible.

I love the stories, and I have some stupid ones myself, not in the same league as you all, but still dumb. I just wanted to kinda say that sometimes if you can't beat them (and you can't, ask one of my poor stubborn friends)
try to come to a managable cease fire (and hopefully time for a peaceful BM, I never thought I would look forward to a peaceful BM)

 

[fab4fan]

yeah, ranks right up there with the family that wants to speak to a doctor urgently at some middle of the night hour, and you're the covering physician. The request is always by some family member who is never around and is never an emergency. The nurses either never ask what it is they want to ask, or seemingly don't suggest that the question is more appropriate for the day light hours.🙄

I know this one may be frustrating, but if a pt/family member demands to speak to a physician, as the nurse you're pretty much stuck. Page the doc, get the doc mad. Refuse to call the doc, and the family/pt complains to admin., then you get written up and have the doc yell at you for not calling and making the pt/family angry.

 

[toxic-megacolon]

I know this one may be frustrating, but if a pt/family member demands to speak to a physician, as the nurse you're pretty much stuck. Page the doc, get the doc mad. Refuse to call the doc, and the family/pt complains to admin., then you get written up and have the doc yell at you for not calling and making the pt/family angry.

The nurse doesn't have to 'refuse to call the doc for the family.' But s/he should say something like 'Your patient's physicians will be back in the morning, let me take your information and put it on a post it note on the chart so they can call you first thing in the morning' I bet 99% of families would be satisfied with this explaination. I get upset when the nurse doesn't even do this and blindly calls the H.O. without even thinking.

 

[fab4fan]

The nurse doesn't have to 'refuse to call the doc for the family.' But s/he should say something like 'Your patient's physicians will be back in the morning, let me take your information and put it on a post it note on the chart so they can call you first thing in the morning' I bet 99% of families would be satisfied with this explaination. I get upset when the nurse doesn't even do this and blindly calls the H.O. without even thinking.

If a family member/pt wants to speak to a doc and is not satisfied with something like the above (yes, I always try that first), then the nurse is pretty much stuck with calling the doc. I try the best I can to fend off requests like that, but there is only so much I can do. If a pt/family member is intent on speaking with the doc at that time in spite of my efforts, I call.

Usually the families/pts. that make this sort of demand are flat out obnoxious and not about to be pacified. They want what they want when they want it.

 

[Mumpu]

These are really quick encounters -- how hard is it to answer all questions with "I don't know, I'm covering for the primary team tonight and I only have enough information to address critical issues overnight. Please write down your questions and the nurse will pass them along to the primary team in the morning."

Obnoxiousness (and many other irksome behaviors) is easily defeated by stubborn politeness (plus it irritates the hell out of the obnoxious people 🙂).

Some hospitals actually have pens and paper at bedside specifically for that reason -- so that family and patients can write down questions as they think of them and the MD can address the issues next time they stop by.

 

[OB/Gyn Kenobi]

I like the 3am page, "Umm, the signout I got from the PM nurse says that Mr X.'s Blood pressure is supposed to be below 140 at all times because of his big aortic dissection, and it's been in the 160s all night. Should I give his something?"

I was up all night because she was pushing IV drugs through an infiltrating IV. Then, I told her to put on some Nitro paste. When I asked her to put on another half inch, she wiped the first half inch off first! It boils my blood sometimes.

 

[48 hours]

How about a 3 am page to a number.....
(we have text pagers, too, but only a few RNs actually use it.....of course, maybe they are worried about liability... I don't know).....
ME: Hi, yes, I was paged
RN: Yes, you are taking care of Mr. Smith? Well, he can't find his shoes.


Or, there is this one RN who notoriously will page you at the end of her shift to tell you that her pt had 8 beats of VTach like 5 hrs ago! "Hi, yes, I just had to notify an MD about this. Thanks"

 

[toxic-megacolon]

I try the best I can to fend off requests like that

That's all I ask. You'd be surprised how often this DOESN'T happen.

 

[Mumpu]

1. Please don't page me just because I happen to be the last person to write the orders on a patient. The name of the primary team is on the front of the chart.
2. If you do #1, please don't argue with me when I tell you I'm not the primary (no, I'm not a liar, I honestly would confess to you if it was my patient). And no, I do not magically know who the primary is. Look at the front of the chart.
3. If you page me to a number, please don't walk away from the phone immediately. I hate calling back within 10 seconds and having to wait on hold for two minutes for you to come back (although in all honesty, no one is more guilty of this than ER docs calling the admission pager -- most people I know just hang up after 15-20 seconds and wait for the second page, repeat until the doc learns to stop walking away).
4. Please don't page me at noon just to read off, rapid-fire, every morning lab marked as abnormal by the computer, followed by "thankyoudoctor*click*".

The one that can be hell is not very good tele techs who insist on calling afib with aberrancy vtach despite the obviously irregular rhythm.

 

[gutonc]

3. If you page me to a number, please don't walk away from the phone immediately. I hate calling back within 10 seconds and having to wait on hold for two minutes for you to come back (although in all honesty, no one is more guilty of this than ER docs calling the admission pager -- most people I know just hang up after 15-20 seconds and wait for the second page, repeat until the doc learns to stop walking away).

Oh man...that is currently my hugest pet peeve. I got to the point where I would wait on hold as long as it took me to return the page. If it takes me a minute to call back, I'll wait for a minute. But if I'm dialing the phone before my pager stops buzzing, you'd best answer before the phone even rings.

There's one floor in particular where I've found this to be a big problem...we call it the Death Star. It's primarily an ortho/vascular floor but occasionally medicine patients get admitted to it. The best thing about it is that it's only a short elevator ride away from a major medical center.

I think part of the problem is that the nurses all have IP-based cell phones that don't have their own numbers. So they page you from their phone to the unit clerk who then has to answer one of 6 ringing lines, overhead page to find out who paged Dr. X and then transfer the call to that phone.

In any event, it's just common courtesy. You (the nurse) are very busy, I (the doctor) am also very busy. Let's make each other's lives easier by not taking unnecessary time out of each other's day.

 

[gutonc]

Duplicate

 

[southerndoc]

3. If you page me to a number, please don't walk away from the phone immediately. I hate calling back within 10 seconds and having to wait on hold for two minutes for you to come back (although in all honesty, no one is more guilty of this than ER docs calling the admission pager -- most people I know just hang up after 15-20 seconds and wait for the second page, repeat until the doc learns to stop walking away).

This is why we have portable phones in our ED. Of course I get so many phone calls on my phone, that something even worse happens sometimes when I page someone: they call back only to find my phone busy.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I know this one may be frustrating, but if a pt/family member demands to speak to a physician, as the nurse you're pretty much stuck. Page the doc, get the doc mad. Refuse to call the doc, and the family/pt complains to admin., then you get written up and have the doc yell at you for not calling and making the pt/family angry.

I know - its a Catch-22. But there are situations in which the family member who is demanding to speak to a physician is not the family member who is the "spokesperson" and these family members should be told to speak to their relatives. All hospitals, especially ICUs, should require families to have ONE person who is responsible for disseminating the information to the rest of the family - otherwise it becomes impossible, telling the story to 50 family members.

 

[Anasazi23]

I know - its a Catch-22. But there are situations in which the family member who is demanding to speak to a physician is not the family member who is the "spokesperson" and these family members should be told to speak to their relatives. All hospitals, especially ICUs, should require families to have ONE person who is responsible for disseminating the information to the rest of the family - otherwise it becomes impossible, telling the story to 50 family members.

This is very true, and no more true on a geriatric unit.

I had my nightmare geriatric psychiatry rotation where I was paged countless times by nurses to talk to family members...or field phone calls as they call incessantly.

At one point, I had taken the third phone call from a family member of the same patient. I politely stated that I already spent nearly an hour on the phone explaining the condition to two other family members, and that they needed to contact them. The person became irate, but I was also very annoyed, and stood my ground. I rarely pull the "busy doctor" mantra, but I had to in that case with him.

It seems that there is always a friggin' niece who's overly involved. I don't know where these nieces come from, or why they're so concerned about everybody's medical problems, but man they love it.

 

[glorytaker]

1. Please don't page me just because I happen to be the last person to write the orders on a patient. The name of the primary team is on the front of the chart.

I think this is funny because we all complain that the nurses at our hospital DON'T call the person who wrote the last order, which is usually the intern on the case or the intern covering for the post-call intern.

 

[Hurricane]

It seems that there is always a friggin' niece who's overly involved. I don't know where these nieces come from, or why they're so concerned about everybody's medical problems, but man they love it.

And it seems like this friggin' niece is always a nurse or some other kind of health care professional, or maybe they took an anatomy course in college, and thus they are the designated family second-guesser of all decisions made by the treatment team.

 

[fab4fan]

But really, it is up to the doc to set the boundaries when it comes to families calling. I can just tell you, having learned the hard way, that if a family member demands to speak to a doc, I usually have to call the doc. This holds true even if the doc spoke with the designated spokesperson for the pt an hour ago. Nursing staff cannot be perceived as having blocked the family's right to communicate with the physician. Sometimes I'll punt it to the nsg. supervisor and let her deal with it. It really depends on how busy things are and how annoying the family member is.

Now I have, on rare occasions, told some of these obnoxious family members that the doc has already spoken to the designated person, and if they want to speak to the doc further they are free to call the doc's office themselves. I sort of throw it back at them and make it their responsibility. I have enough to do as it is without playing personal secretary for the pt's second cousin twice removed.

 

[DOtobe]

And it seems like this friggin' niece is always a nurse or some other kind of health care professional, or maybe they took an anatomy course in college, and thus they are the designated family second-guesser of all decisions made by the treatment team.

So true.

I am now on night float, so I'm sure I'll have a few stories over the next two weeks. Last night I had a nurse tell me that her patient was "hypoglycemic." Her glucose was 86. I just kind of looked at her, and she walked away in a huff because I wasn't concerned.

 

[DOtobe]

One more night float rant. I can't count the number of times I have been asked, "are you the resident on call?" when I am sitting on the floor over the past two days. It's f*cking 3:00 in the morning, I'm not just here hanging out for fun. And this is from nurses who have seen me before and know I am one of the FP residents (as opposed to the surgical resident on call).

I really need a vacation...

 

[SLUser11]

There's one floor in particular where I've found this to be a big problem...we call it the Death Star. It's primarily an ortho/vascular floor but occasionally medicine patients get admitted to it. The best thing about it is that it's only a short elevator ride away from a major medical center.

Not that your joke is inherently very funny, but it's just funny to me because I heard a urology attending make the exact same joke about a medicine floor yesterday.......


I guess alot of medicine nurses aren't well fit for caring for surgical patients, and vice versa.......

Last year on an away elective, there was a patient with a bowel obstruction admitted to a medicine floor (well, the resident didn't specify where the patient should go and that's where he ended up). When the resident told the surgical attending about the admission over the phone, he was pretty pissed, and remarked "people die on the seventh floor, Doctor." And, true enough, the patient almost died (nurse perforated his sigmoid doing an enema and then didn't call about it until he was near death)..........

 

[DiveMD]

One more night float rant. I can't count the number of times I have been asked, "are you the resident on call?" when I am sitting on the floor over the past two days. It's f*cking 3:00 in the morning, I'm not just here hanging out for fun. And this is from nurses who have seen me before and know I am one of the FP residents (as opposed to the surgical resident on call).

I really need a vacation...

This is sadly true most of the time....

 

[Hurricane]

There's one floor in particular where I've found this to be a big problem...we call it the Death Star.

We also had a "Death Star" wing where I went to med school. And there's one here as well, only they call it "The Killing Fields."

 

[toofache32]

We also had a "Death Star" wing where I went to med school. And there's one here as well, only they call it "The Killing Fields."

Ahhhhh, I think we're at the same institution....you're talking about 9-South-South? I was just thinking of the same thing.

 

[toofache32]

One more night float rant. I can't count the number of times I have been asked, "are you the resident on call?" when I am sitting on the floor over the past two days. It's f*cking 3:00 in the morning, I'm not just here hanging out for fun. And this is from nurses who have seen me before and know I am one of the FP residents (as opposed to the surgical resident on call)....

I think most of them don't know that we work 30 hour shifts. I have talked to several who beleive that I'm just working a "night" 8- or 12-hour shift like they are.

 

[Hurricane]

Ahhhhh, I think we're at the same institution....you're talking about 9-South-South? I was just thinking of the same thing.

Yep. Oddly enough, it was the 9th floor at my med school too. Maybe something about the number 9 is unlucky...

 

[fuzzyerin]

Today I got paged to say that the patient who I ordered coumadin for last night didn't receive it. After asking why, I was told the nurse "overlooked the order" because the "sheet was behind the other order sheet" - regardless, whatever. So I told her to give the dose STAT and then check a INR 8 hours after. She said, oh, but she had it drawn already this morning. Well, duh, BUT THAT'S NOT GOING TO HELP ME SINCE SHE DIDN'T GET THE COUMADIN, will it?

Fast forward to when I'm rounding with the attending...she had just gotten the dose and I thanked the nurse when she remarked "well, but it's all okay because she's getting her lovenox." At which point, I turned to her and said, the lovenox is for DVT prophylaxis and the coumadin is for her afib and if she goes into afib and throws a clot because she is subtherapeudic on her COUMADIN, I was going to be very upset.

Deep breath...in...out....

 

[RuralMedicine]

I know - its a Catch-22. But there are situations in which the family member who is demanding to speak to a physician is not the family member who is the "spokesperson" and these family members should be told to speak to their relatives. All hospitals, especially ICUs, should require families to have ONE person who is responsible for disseminating the information to the rest of the family - otherwise it becomes impossible, telling the story to 50 family members.

Not only is this helpful to physicians because we don't have to rehash things multiple times but I think it's also helpful to families because you don't end up with multiple interpretations of the rehashes. Also from a liability/HIPPA standpoint not everyone who identifies themselves as "family" really has any right to medical information. As a resident (and occasionally now as an attending covering on call) I always particularly enjoyed coming to speak with the family and then identifying on my 20 second flip through the chart that I wasn't actually allowed to speak with the family.

 

[timtye78]

hehe...guys you should have went into anesthesia...

Dont get too many stupid calls from nurses, ah yes, another reason to go into anesthesia besides NO dictations!

 

[toofache32]

hehe...guys you should have went into anesthesia...

Dont get too many stupid calls from nurses, ah yes, another reason to go into anesthesia besides NO dictations....

And obviously no English requirement....

 

[Mirror Form]

These are really quick encounters -- how hard is it to answer all questions with "I don't know, I'm covering for the primary team tonight and I only have enough information to address critical issues overnight. Please write down your questions and the nurse will pass them along to the primary team in the morning."

Obnoxiousness (and many other irksome behaviors) is easily defeated by stubborn politeness (plus it irritates the hell out of the obnoxious people 🙂).

Some hospitals actually have pens and paper at bedside specifically for that reason -- so that family and patients can write down questions as they think of them and the MD can address the issues next time they stop by.

It really sucks when that call interupts what might have been your chance to sleep 2 or 3 hours on straight on a call night.

Man, I am so glad internship is over and I'm now in a residency that typically just acts on consults. I'd shoot myself if I had to go back to last year.

 

[Cologist]

I'll try ...when I was a tech (many moons ago before med school) this one nurse just hated the idea I was premed, gung-ho medicine, etc. She wrote me up for flushing the art-line after I drew morning labs. She said I was not licensed to give meds and that the saline was technically a med. The nurse manager and the attending told her to jump off a bridge. She did again during a code because I was passing drugs from the crash cart to the other nurses and docs, because there was no other person there (or I was closest to cart, I cant remember). Boy ..its hard to mix those pretty boxes of purple, red and ,yellow, etc.!! Anyway, I usually tried to avoid her, and I never really understood why she disliked me so much, because I did everything the nurses asked me, including code browns, bathing etc. Oh well, not so funny, but I tried!! 😎

No KIDDING! I was an aide myself during premed and I was given so much hell by one or two RNs because of that! One of them was playing computer games at 3am while ordering me to dust air vents!! Like you I did everything they asked me!!! I came to realize that there is two types of nurses: those who love their work and do it well and those who are jealous. If you want to be a nurse, go to nursing school. If you want to be a doctor, go to medical school. Plenty of nurses made the switch and went back to school to become physicians.

I want more funnies!!!! Keep them coming!!!!!

 

[caroladybelle]

And it seems like this friggin' niece is always a nurse or some other kind of health care professional, or maybe they took an anatomy course in college, and thus they are the designated family second-guesser of all decisions made by the treatment team.

Actually, probably 90% of those that say they are a "nurse", actually are not nurses. CNAs, prenursing students, MAs, dental hygienists, vet techs, etc.

It is just like the vast number of people that say they are in "medicine".
Invariably if you question, the real story is quite different - MAs, PA students, etc. Or people that introduce themselves as "Doctor" - and are doctor of medieval languages.

 

[Gfunk6]

Got a funny page today, not from a nurse technically but . . .

Basically I was repsponding to a code on the floor which turned out to be the Palliative Care Unit. Of course, I was wondering why they hell they were calling a code since the pt was DNR/DNI.

Turns out the pt was doing just dandy but a couple of family members got into a slugfist over the inheritance. One of them ended up having a panic attack and strated hyperventilating . . .

 

[Gfunk6]

Got another good one, just now!
Text Page: "Ms. So and so is having chest pain"

<I call nursing floor>
Gfunk: Hello, this is Gfunk, I was paged about Ms. So and so
RN: Yes, she was having chest pain
Gfunk: OK, when did it start?
RN: @ 15:00
<uncomfortable pause as Gfunk checks his watch, noticing that it is already 19:00>
Gfunk: Oooookay . . why wasn't I notified of this four hours ago?
RN: Well I paged the pt's intern Dr. Such and such twice, but he didn't respond.
<Gfunk realizes that Dr. Such and such is post-call and left the hospital hours ago; he further wonders why the nurse didn't simply ask the hospital operator to page the medicine intern on call>
Gfunk: OK, well did you do an EKG and get cardiac markers?
RN: Yes, I did an EKG and got two sets of markers.
<Gfunk sighs happily, his faith in humanity restored>
Gfunk: So what do the markers look like?
RN: I don't know, I haven't actually looked at them.
<grrrrrrrr . . .>

Fortunately, when I got up there I saw the EKG and enzymes were stone cold normal. Saw the pt who was probably having pleuritic chest pain.

 

[highball]

Just finished my month of surgery night float... A few gems I can still remember:

1. Paged at 0330 to a number.... wait for a couple minutes with eyes barely open. Nurse comes on asking if I'm on call🙄 Then asks me to put in an order for a flu shot on a neurosurgery patient. In disbelief, I first ask her if the patient is even awake? No. Had the patient just asked her to get the shot? No. What made her think about giving the patient a flu shot? Well, I just remembered that the patient had asked me earlier about it...Could you put in the order. To which I answer: Do you even need an MD order for a flu shot? Isn't it part of the hospital protocol this time of year? ...I don't know, but I need an order. Are you going to give the patient the shot now? Well, the pt. is asleep, so probably not, but I need the order so I can give it when they wake up. Jayzus!!!😱

2. Paged at 0445 from the ob/gyn floor. Hey Doc, just wanted to let you know that the percocet you gave that lady at 10:30pm did great. ...Pause as I wait for anything else...AND. nothing. That's great, I say, thanks. Click.😡 😡

3. Text paged at 2330 saying that a patient is refusing to drink CT contrast and wants to talk to the doctor. I ask if they tried to reason with her and they say Yes. 88 year old lady POD 3 from reversal of hatmann's pouch, suspected of leak and abscess. I get up there and see the contrast sitting at the side of the bed. Talk to her for about 15 minutes, explaining abscesses and whatnot. Finally, she agrees to take the stuff, saying "Doc, you make a convincing argument"

I'll try to think of some more.

 

[Van Chowder]

bump

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

Man, reading this thread almost makes you forget the vast majority of doctors and nurses are normal, well-adjusted human beings who have basic respect for their coworkers.

Also, all the fighting detracts from some pretty funny stories.

The local urban myth at my hospital has a nurse paging in the wee hours for a patient who is crying, to which the resident orders a stat "Clown to Bedside."

 

[Arrhythmia]

From my sub-I.

Time: Early in the morning in the middle of the night.

Me: Hello.
Nurse: Patient so-and-so's foley came out. What should I do?
Me: Put in another one.
End.

Don't nurses need your OK to reinsert a new one? With Medicare not reimbursing cath related infections, a lot of MDs opt not to have a another catheter in. Or if a pt is confused and pulled it out, then there's another chance he/she will do so again and might cause injury. The nurse was just covering her behind. Thus, I dont find your story funny at all. Sorry.

 

[psychbender]

The local urban myth at my hospital has a nurse paging in the wee hours for a patient who is crying, to which the resident orders a stat "Clown to Bedside."

WRAMC, by chance?

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

Don't nurses need your OK to reinsert a new one? With Medicare not reimbursing cath related infections, a lot of MDs opt not to have a another catheter in. Or if a pt is confused and pulled it out, then there's another chance he/she will do so again and might cause injury. The nurse was just covering her behind. Thus, I dont find your story funny at all. Sorry.

Good lord, did you register an account just to snipe about a 2 1/2 year old post? Lighten up.

 

[Tired]

Don't nurses need your OK to reinsert a new one? With Medicare not reimbursing cath related infections, a lot of MDs opt not to have a another catheter in. Or if a pt is confused and pulled it out, then there's another chance he/she will do so again and might cause injury. The nurse was just covering her behind. Thus, I dont find your story funny at all. Sorry.

No, they don't. When you write an order for a foley cath, that means keep it in. They also don't call when an IV gets pulled out. Also, if they are taking a pill to a patient, and they accidently drop it on the floor, they go get another one and give it to the patient, rather than calling us to ask us what to do.

If there are concerns about the patient pulling at lines, then the nurse will call, but that's to discuss whether or not the patient requires some kind of restraint.

And no, "a lot" of MDs won't refuse to put another one back in. Like all invasive devices, there is a degree of risk and benefit. Deciding to put in a catheter means that the physician has decided that the benefit of one outweighs the risk. We don't have them placed just for fun, we do it because they need it. And despite your perception, medical decisions are not made based on what Medicare does and does not reimburse.