I am a longstanding member of our RRT. When called we respond within seconds, and have many many times diverted a patient from transferring to a higher level of care. However, this facility is very small and we on nights are already accepting dangerously high patient loads (this is due to high patient acuity and budget cuts !!! We all know the most acute patients sleep all night,right? ) There is no one delegated to watch our patients while we are on a call. Thus when we return, we are told about pain issues or patients have NOT been turned or something as simple as someone wanted a drink of water and was told " your nurse is busy right now " .

Now we are told we are to respond to DNR/DNI patients...we have to give fluid boluses, increase oxygen delivery, etc...excuse me? I am ALL about comfort yet this seems to be torturing the patients and rushing them to ICU does not seem appropriate for a DNR/DNI.  Perhaps we should be there at the bedside rendering comfort care,however gouging them for iv access in their last moments of life does not seem much of a comfort to me. Has anyone called the family? We are ususally told they have not been called. Well then by golly, pick up the phone and call them. This is not rocket science. 

The latest news is that we are to respond to the pregnant patients who are having difficulty breathing or who are tachycardic....because we handle breath sounds and heart rates everyday....for the love of all that might resemble a nursing skill......what? excuse me? Have you taken a history? could this be dehydration or underlying hypertension??? OMG. Your fingers cannot dial the OB/GYN's phone number for orders or direction? Is this a high risk pregnancy? Sheesh. And our Team smiles and handles the situations with grace,kindness and NURSING SKILL.S.

Sorry . I am just venting today. Please listen to my rant.  Seem we are passing the buck to a precious few who still have critical thinking skills and the rest of the staff can go about in wonderland.