#medstudents

New on in-House, a brilliant & personal photo essay about the various phases of #Medstudent life. Captured by resident physician Ankur Vaidya, MD while he was a medical student.

To those of you working on becoming Doctors/Surgeons: Rumor has it they tell you one of the first lessons you learn is to work with the nurses. Is that true? What do you all think nurses do? Do you think we are itching to call you and wake you up at all hours of the night for work? Do you think we sit around waiting for a good reason to inconvenience you with YOUR PATIENTS?

Here’s why I ask:

Last week, I had a new admit at 2030. (Right after shift change) They were admitted to one of our general surgeons from the ER. The ER Dr. is supposed to communicate with the admitting physician and send the patient up with an order set. That did not happen, so in the midst of administering meds, Starting a unit of PRBC, monitoring a patient on new chemo, doing my full assessments, answering a million questions and fulfilling requests in every room, I had no orders for my new admit.

I stopped what I was doing, and sent a Doc Halo to the surgeon (who was on call) saying that their “patient arrived to the floor and to please give me a call at # with orders.” I waited for a call on my IP phone and none came. Literally two minutes later I got a DocHalo message back saying, “No one answers the phone so deal with it.” I tried to have him paged and he never responded.

(I spoke with the charge nurse who wasn’t up front to answer the main phone because a patient on the other side of the floor was declining, ((and we don’t always have a unit clerk at night))THE CHARGE NURSE WAS IN STAFFING WITH SIX OF HER OWN PATIENTS!)

So, I stepped out of my scope of practice that night and made orders for a patient. I stuck to the basics and made the call because I was put in the position to. THIS IS NOT OK. When you become a physician DO NOT do this to your nurses. You signed up for this life! You decided to be in a position to be called at all hours (y’all it was only 830pm and he was on call), and to be responsible for other peoples lives. Do not be unapproachable, Do not be a pompous ass.

The next morning this physician came in, saw the patient and gave me a smug look and went to talk to the floor manager. He told my manager, “One of your nurses called me for orders she should have already had at 0200 and didn’t answer the damn phone when I called!”

I sent a screenshot to my manager of the DocHalo conversation right after it happened. My manager said, “ Actually sir, it was 2030. Why couldn’t you tell that nurse to call you at a specific number? Why couldn’t you call the specific number she gave you? Why would you put my nurse in the position to do your job when its not in her scope of practice?” He said nothing and backed into the elevator and didn’t say a word.

I wish I could say he is the only Dr. to act like this that frequently puts patients on my floor (several of them prefer our floor) but he isn’t. I did what I had to do to get my patient through the night, but it is not my job to write orders.

If you’re becoming a Dr. please try to remember:

1. Nurses are human beings. If we have to call you, then we HAVE to. We do not WANT to, especially if you’re known to be difficult or unapproachable, but we do it for the patients.

2. This is our livelihood: Please do not put us in the position to step out of our scope of practice and potentially lose our license. DO YOUR JOB, and put your petty crap aside. Please.

3. I field patient requests and questions in the middle of the night to make sure that you are not called for stupid reasons. I back you up. When patients complain about your lack of bedside manner, I talk you up and help them feel more comfortable with your ability to treat them. I have your back, why on God’s green earth cant you have mine!?