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I have done a toxicology rotation for my residency requirements. I found some pet peeves when working on the service. Part of the service was to answer phone calls and give advice to hospitals. The other part was to do inpatient treatment when patients were admitted or transferred to the service. The phone call part is what I am hoping to start a discussion about.
I found some hospitals have their triage nurses call, some the nurse caring for the patient, and some the physician/resident/PA/NP caring for the patient. Trying to figure out what the advantage is of the nurses calling in other than time constraint. I found on the toxicology side, it was difficult to answer questions with very minimal information. Some would call without vital signs even being done yet. Some call without any labs (sometimes I do understand this is appropriate, but most of the time it can wait). Some are really nice and call with everything. Unfortunately, when nurses call, getting the neuro exam over the phone was quite challenging.
Maybe the situation is different than other places, but at this place, it was always a resident answering the phone. It is not the poison control center that patients/families call.
Question here is: What is typically done at your shop? And if you typically have nurses call, is there a specific reason?
I found some hospitals have their triage nurses call, some the nurse caring for the patient, and some the physician/resident/PA/NP caring for the patient. Trying to figure out what the advantage is of the nurses calling in other than time constraint. I found on the toxicology side, it was difficult to answer questions with very minimal information. Some would call without vital signs even being done yet. Some call without any labs (sometimes I do understand this is appropriate, but most of the time it can wait). Some are really nice and call with everything. Unfortunately, when nurses call, getting the neuro exam over the phone was quite challenging.
Maybe the situation is different than other places, but at this place, it was always a resident answering the phone. It is not the poison control center that patients/families call.
Question here is: What is typically done at your shop? And if you typically have nurses call, is there a specific reason?