Bleeping etiquette
1. Bleeping is not a spinal reflex. Please take a few seconds to breath, think and organise your thoughts, and stop flapping about. Half the time you may realise you didn't even need to pick up the phone
2. Mention what ward you are on. I don't have the whole hospital directory of numbers memorised.
3. If you bleep someone, please wait by the phone. How can there be no-one picking up the phone at your end when I ring back?!
4. Have the notes, obs chart and drug chart in front of you. Chances are I need to know what the obs were without waiting for you to run over to the bed and look, then run back over to the trolley to get the notes when I ask the next question.
5. Please mention the name, age, and working diagnosis of the patient. The following is not acceptable: "Hello doctor, please see patient in 4, 6, she has chest pain".
6. All patients with chest pain need an ECG. Don't bleep me until one is being done or there in front of you.
7. If I'm in theatre (surgery), leave a clear message. The following is not acceptable: "Can you come to the ward afterwards, there are a few things to do".
8. Once in a while I will not respond to my bleep. This is because I am jumping on top of someone's chest trying to save their life. I am NOT 'on break'. Doctors don't have these.
9. Please check with the other nurses that you aren't asking the same question. Being bleeped by the same ward from two phones and two nurses for same patient is distinctly un-fun.
10. You spend twenty times as much time with each patient than we do. We appreciate your opinion and pertinent information. The following is not acceptable: "Well you're the doctor, you should know". Well actually I'm on call and have never met this patient who has spent 5 weeks with you.
11. Please be cheery on the phone and perhaps even flirt a little. I've just spent 12 hours running around the hospital doing mundane tasks, talking to angry relatives, putting my finger up bums, taking blood and ordering xrays. You will get your way far easier by making me smile.
12. When I answer the bleep please don't say 'Oops, sorry I had a question but not anymore". (See also point 1).
13. Please don't ask me to see virtually every patient on your ward. That's called a ward round.
14. If you do canulas on the ward regularly you will be my favourite nurse and I will do anything you say.
15. If I answer my bleep and the line is engaged because you are bleeping me from that phone again, I may well explode.
16. If a patient has died, he/she no longer cares how long it takes me to get to the ward. That's a medical fact. Chances are I can do a few other jobs on my way there. If you bleep me again for this patient it better be because they have miraculously come back to life.
17. The 'MEWS / EWS / EWSS / PARS' score is a trigger for you to call me and is useless after that. I don't give a crap what the score is. Tell me WHY the patient has scored it (e.g. respiratory rate? BP? heart rate?).
18. Please don't start a sentence "Just to let you know..." or "Just so you know..." I hear this 50 times per shift.
19. Please don't make the person who picks up the phone have find to you from the other end of the ward. (See also point 3)
20. Don't have someone else (e.g. a student) bleep for you. It's cruel to them, and they are not your secretary. (see also points 4, 5 and 19)
21. Dosing a patient's warfarin (whom you have never met and don't know their history) at 4am is horrible, tedious, legally dubious and just plain bad for the patient. Please slap the day team round their faces when they arrive the next morning and don't let it happen again.
22. Sit down! You may be surprised with how much this helps points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, and 19
23a. If you happen to have a spare moment, eavesdrop when a doctor bleeps another doctor. The majority of the time you will see how it should be done.
23b. Sometimes point 23a doesn't work because the doctor is a week old and still learning the 'etiquette'. He/she will learn very quickly as their senior on the other end shouts them down!
2. Mention what ward you are on. I don't have the whole hospital directory of numbers memorised.
3. If you bleep someone, please wait by the phone. How can there be no-one picking up the phone at your end when I ring back?!
4. Have the notes, obs chart and drug chart in front of you. Chances are I need to know what the obs were without waiting for you to run over to the bed and look, then run back over to the trolley to get the notes when I ask the next question.
5. Please mention the name, age, and working diagnosis of the patient. The following is not acceptable: "Hello doctor, please see patient in 4, 6, she has chest pain".
6. All patients with chest pain need an ECG. Don't bleep me until one is being done or there in front of you.
7. If I'm in theatre (surgery), leave a clear message. The following is not acceptable: "Can you come to the ward afterwards, there are a few things to do".
8. Once in a while I will not respond to my bleep. This is because I am jumping on top of someone's chest trying to save their life. I am NOT 'on break'. Doctors don't have these.
9. Please check with the other nurses that you aren't asking the same question. Being bleeped by the same ward from two phones and two nurses for same patient is distinctly un-fun.
10. You spend twenty times as much time with each patient than we do. We appreciate your opinion and pertinent information. The following is not acceptable: "Well you're the doctor, you should know". Well actually I'm on call and have never met this patient who has spent 5 weeks with you.
11. Please be cheery on the phone and perhaps even flirt a little. I've just spent 12 hours running around the hospital doing mundane tasks, talking to angry relatives, putting my finger up bums, taking blood and ordering xrays. You will get your way far easier by making me smile.
12. When I answer the bleep please don't say 'Oops, sorry I had a question but not anymore". (See also point 1).
13. Please don't ask me to see virtually every patient on your ward. That's called a ward round.
14. If you do canulas on the ward regularly you will be my favourite nurse and I will do anything you say.
15. If I answer my bleep and the line is engaged because you are bleeping me from that phone again, I may well explode.
16. If a patient has died, he/she no longer cares how long it takes me to get to the ward. That's a medical fact. Chances are I can do a few other jobs on my way there. If you bleep me again for this patient it better be because they have miraculously come back to life.
17. The 'MEWS / EWS / EWSS / PARS' score is a trigger for you to call me and is useless after that. I don't give a crap what the score is. Tell me WHY the patient has scored it (e.g. respiratory rate? BP? heart rate?).
18. Please don't start a sentence "Just to let you know..." or "Just so you know..." I hear this 50 times per shift.
19. Please don't make the person who picks up the phone have find to you from the other end of the ward. (See also point 3)
20. Don't have someone else (e.g. a student) bleep for you. It's cruel to them, and they are not your secretary. (see also points 4, 5 and 19)
21. Dosing a patient's warfarin (whom you have never met and don't know their history) at 4am is horrible, tedious, legally dubious and just plain bad for the patient. Please slap the day team round their faces when they arrive the next morning and don't let it happen again.
22. Sit down! You may be surprised with how much this helps points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, and 19
23a. If you happen to have a spare moment, eavesdrop when a doctor bleeps another doctor. The majority of the time you will see how it should be done.
23b. Sometimes point 23a doesn't work because the doctor is a week old and still learning the 'etiquette'. He/she will learn very quickly as their senior on the other end shouts them down!
posted by Descultz at 22:53:00
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