Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Don't poke the bears

Doctors,
Please do not piss off the nurses.
1).  There are more of us than of you in this ED, end of story.
2).  We talk to each other, a lot.  We have a running list of "If I collapse at work here are the doctor's I DON'T want working on me".
3).  We understand you want to reduce door-to-doctor times, LOSs, diversion time and LWOTs.  Guess what, those are mostly provider-related, not nursing related.  If you keep our patient-nurse ratios at 3:1, we can get a lot more done for you and keep all those numbers down.  However, do not come on shift, look at the 15+ in the waiting room, 75% admitted holds, and then tell us you want 1 nurse to drop everything and run your split-flow room.  "I just need 1 room."  And all the patients that the other doctor's have admitted just need 1 pillow, 1 pain pill, 1 neb tx, 1 insulin drip, 1 EKG, 1 round of evening meds, and 1 "what's taking the doctor so long".  We monitor these patients 24/7, while you pop in the room for a few minutes, do an assessment, make up a plan and then stroll out the door.  Trust me, if these patients didn't need anything done I'll gladly take on extra patients, but with the myriad of orders you put in, it can take me an hour to get everything done.  And by then, guess what, time to go check on everyone else.
So please, stop making unrealistic requests and asinine comments about the night-shift, and focus on what you do best, seeing patients and dispositioning them quickly.  If your management bone is itchy, go manage some other providers, not nurses, we have our own management for that.
Thank you,
The very tired, very angry nurses

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