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8 Things Nurses Should Never Say to Doctors
Marijke Durning | NursingLink
4. “I knew he was an aortic aneurysm/pulmonary embolism/[fill-in-the-blank] as soon as he came through the door.” [Usually said after the patient crashes.]
You know the saying: “Hindsight is 20/20.” It’s easy to be smart and observant when we look back on what happened. Too bad we don’t have those insights when the crisis is actually occurring!
Of course, when we’ve been on the job for a while, we do get a sense of who and what is coming through the door. We can see a patient and mentally think, “Hmm, this looks like….” and many times we’re right. But many times we’re wrong too, and human nature being what it is, we may just forget those times.
If we have the time while we’re working with the patient, and it’s appropriate, we might voice our suspicions to the doctor. But don’t forget, when a patient has crashed, the doctor often feels like she’s failed. For us to say, “Yeah, I knew he was….” after the fact, is only rubbing salt in the wound. And it may just make you sound like a know-it-all.
pswaide
about 2 years ago
2 comments
I just had a conversation with one of our NP's this weekend about how often this is happening. As a clinical instructor, I am sharing this with my students.
marina_dilbone1
about 2 years ago
26 comments
Some good points-but sometimes my "colleagues" have reported me to charge nurses and managers for asking for a second opinion at 6 in the morning-I always feel better asking and will always err on the side of caution but I should not have to wonder if I ask someone should I call if they will report me that I SHOULD KNOW TO CALL-am a travel nurse-enjoy for the most part except for power struggles like that
arcadia55
about 2 years ago
2 comments
I do not like calling the doctor late in the evening or early in the morning. But one thing this whole article is not recognizing is the fact that especially in long term care, because of the policies kiin place, the nurse must call no matter how trivial. I know that to be a fact especially in Michigan, we nurses had to call in any and all abnormal labs no matter how slight the difference in values were, and we could not allow anything at all go until the next morning, did not matter if all Mr Brown had a slight head cold or that Mrs. Smiths ua came back positive for a ua, and she was asymptomatic. It could have waited until the next morning, but no because the result was received at 1am, we still had to call the doc.
ccolburn
about 2 years ago
1628 comments
Sometimes as Nures we make mistakes this is some Great advice!
Inara
over 2 years ago
64 comments
good advice, especially for new nurses! It's true, people don't think much of nurses, but sometimes, we make mistakes too!