One day when I was in the middle of a vacation, it was the last day at work for a friend of mine and they were having a special potluck breakfast for her at the nurse's station. So I decided to come by for an hour in the morning with cinnamon buns and my toddler to bid my friend goodbye.
I was glad I came to see her, and also my daughter had a great time, plus I got to show her off. But when I was there about half an hour, a nurse came up to me holding some pills and said, "Can I ask you a question?"
I said, "No, I'm on vacation. I'm not really here."
The nurse said, "It's just a quick question about a patient."
Then about three other people said, "No! She's not here! She's on vacation!"
The nurse gave me an exasperated look and said, "You're really not even going to answer a question?"
Then someone told her to go page the attending on the floor.
I mean, was I wrong? I was sitting there with my two year old child, chatting with friends, on my freaking vacation. Why should I have to answer non-urgent medical questions about patients I hadn't even seen in several days? But she seemed so irritated I wouldn't do it. It made me wonder if I should have just been nice and helped her.
(For the record, two of the people chatting with me were practitioners AND were working, and somehow she only asked me.)
You were not wrong. It might have been better if you had directed her to the person she could get the information from, but if you're off you're off.
ReplyDeleteYou're never really on vacation when you work in health care.
ReplyDeleteIt was the last line that got me. I used to be a supervisor in a community based psychiatric rehabilitation program. We had an on-call rotation but the night receptionist tended to always call me. I was easy to reach, I would answer her questions, and I had essentially no time off because of it. I finally had to be "mean" and tell them to call the actual on-call. I felt kind of bad at first but I deserved my own free time as much as anyone else.
ReplyDeleteSo, no, I don't think you were wrong. I probably would have answered the question or at least listened - because I'm a bit of a sucker. But directing her to talk to someone who had actually been following the patient for the past few days was probably the smart thing to do, not just because it was your vacation. You certainly didn't know what had been happening while you were gone.
Good for you. You stuck to your guns, don't get pulled in decision making when you are not provider responsible for the patients' care. If you answer, 2 things can happen, you might get pulled in a law suit later, you might not answer the question correctly because you don't know the patient. But first thing that came in mind, when I saw title of this entry: Yes! Dr Fizzy you were wrong! Don't argue in stores over 3$ item. Don't give restaurant a hard time. Don't criticize hotel for not letting someone eat all day out of buffet breakfast....
ReplyDeleteSo in your head, the customer is always wrong and the stores should never do anything to please them?
DeleteNot the same poster as the original, but wow you were quick to paint the OP as an extremist. I think the OP was suggesting you not sweat the small stuff so much.
DeletePerhaps I did jump on them too fast, but of the three situations they named, two of them didn't even involve me and had happened to somebody else I knew. In The one situation that did involve me, I was not upset about three dollars, but rather the fact that it took me half an hour and multiple trips across a large department store to purchase a three dollar item with two crying kids due solely to a fault of the store. I only asked for some consideration to make me feel a little bit better about a situation that I was really cranky about already, but they couldn't even give me that.
DeleteNo you were not wrong. Its her problem that she got annoyed---she should've felt bad for bothering you when you were on vacation, if anything. (but I'm like you, I'd second guess it)
ReplyDeleteNot wrong. … There was probably a lot going on in her day unrelated to you for her to express that annoyance. My guess, you were just the innocent bystander in whatever was going on with her.
ReplyDeleteI think it's possible you do overact to fairly minor situations. Have you tried chilling out?
ReplyDeleteActually, this is called being self reflective. Try it sometime!
DeleteIf the medical industry is anything like my industry, the nurse's "quick question" turns into "Dr. Attending, Dr. Fizzy advised me X on Y patient, and now Z has happened, what do I do now?" and suddenly you're not on vacation anymore!
ReplyDeleteSo no, I would have rebuffed that nurse into oblivion. The nurse should know better anyway, unless they're a newbie CNA or something. In which case you taught them a good lesson.
Smart woman. Say no. Patients want fresh doctors, not constant on/on/on that can't turn it off and then turn into problems because they don't take downtime.
ReplyDeleteYour family needs to understand and see a woman who can separate work from home. Nothing torks me more than "superdocs". I had one and they just drove me crazy. Give me a normal human being who knows what life is like outside of medicine, is a parent or uncle/aunt, has interests and is involved in them outside of medicine. They tend to make better decisions from a patients' point of view, and understand us better, than "superdocs".
You were NOT wrong! Depending on the question it could've required you to go see the patient or @ least spend time reading up on what had been going on during those few days you AWAY. Had something happened to the patient even several days later you could've been named in a lawsuit (& possibly blamed) for "making a decision w/out seeing the patient (for several days), being preoccupied w/ a party & your daughter, etc., etc., etc.! You have to draw the line & you did!
ReplyDeleteLOL I don't know about the rest of you but most nurses here are very strict to their hours. If they're on a break the whole hospital could erupt in flames and they wouldn't care. Don't even bother talking to them after their shift ends. If it was one of those nurses then no you're not wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few that have my cell number though and I generally answer them day or night
Just a guess but were the other two physicians male? She was taking the easy and lazy route.
ReplyDeleteAmanda
Actually they were both women.
DeleteDefinitely not wrong. Because you can bet it would be documented in the EMR as "Dr. Fizzy informed of XYZ and recommended ABC," and voila! you're the one responsible for everything.
ReplyDelete+1! "Dr. Fizzy aware" in the chart is a veritable "never event" when she is not on duty. Making a medical decision when one is not intimately familiar with current events in a patient's care would look terrible in any subsequent lawsuit.
DeleteIn addition, the on-service attending would be left in the dark regarding any changes to the patient's care, which is never a good thing for the patient.
And I've been in situations where I was just asked to write one simple order for something that seem completely insignificant, and it ended up being a big deal with like 1000 follow-up questions.
DeleteYep, so common. You were 100% correct!
DeleteDefinitely not in the wrong.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not rostered on, then you're not there in a professional capacity.
In a similar vein, I've been in situations where nurses/midwives are on their allocated break (during a shift which they're working), and even then they won't take messages/questions about patients under their care.
Addit:
DeleteNot to mention the legal issues (for the nurse, in particular) if anything were to go wrong
I think this is one of those "workplace culture" things. At my office, if I'm there on my day off and somebody asks me to do something small, it usually is something small and I do it. But the same holds true for everybody- it's not the kind of place where the building's burning down and the nurses are on lunch they won't grab a fire extinguisher. If your hospital is like that, though, what's good for the goose applies.
ReplyDeleteIf there were other available people, I don't see why the nurse needed you specifically...
ReplyDelete