 Hi guys so today I want to talk about calling doctors and calling doctors can be super scary and intimidating the first time or first couple times that you have to call them especially if you work night shift it's like you're calling doctors at odd hours you're waking them up and you already feel bad because you're like I wouldn't want to be woken up. It's a totally necessary part of the nursing job and my biggest piece of advice is to just do it and hopefully it'll get more comfortable for you. So some tips that I have for calling doctors is always be prepared for what you're gonna say. They teach you the S-bar in school which is a great format to go by but in reality you need to be able to call the doctor present them with a little information to kind of trigger their memory on a patient or patient situation so they know which patient you're calling about and then give them the reason why you're calling and be upfront with it. You don't really have to give a whole lot of background information you don't have to like give this patient's whole admission. I mean sometimes maybe you will but usually doctors can remember patients right off the bat like think about it when you're talking to your nursing friends about hey do you remember this patient about this time and right away it's like yes I remember that of course I remember that situation so doctors are the same way. They may not remember patient's names right off the bat but if you say their name and then you kind of explain the situation or the room number whatever they're like oh yeah yeah I remember that patient's not in a couple hours to go or whatever and just keep it very brief. I like to sometimes write down exactly the things I'm calling about that way you can make sure that you check them all off of your list before the conversation ends or before they hang up and make sure that you get everything that you need. I really I'm not intimidated at all to call doctors anymore because it's just a necessary part of the job it's part of the communication and it's part of advocating for your patient and if I have a doctor that I know usually is angry when nurses call that doesn't prevent me from calling them because like dude it's part of your job like I have to call you and I'm sorry it makes you upset but it just is what it is. I also work days so most doctors are awake during the day so I don't have that issue but regardless even at night make sure if you're calling for something make sure it's pertinent and don't be afraid because you're advocating for your patient. If it's going to change your patient's outcome or change the plan or direction of care then absolutely you need to call. At the end of the day we're just doing our jobs so if doctors would get upset with you because you're calling them it is what it is that they hang up on you and you haven't finished what you need to ask them about call them back or get your nurse manager involved or a charge nurse whatever someone that can kind of be your backup. If you're unsure if you should call a doctor for a certain reason then talk to another nurse or someone else that's more experienced be like hey would you call over this and that way they can kind of filter out those phone calls and if you especially if it's something that you're like hmm is this necessary to call on or not and when in doubt just call. You'd rather just give them information then delay a patient's plan of care or delay treatment because you didn't call over something. So some things that I call doctors about are orders do I need an order for medication, change in patient status, is there a change in their vital signs, change in their neuro status, something new that I've discovered or something that's changed, lab values if you have something that's critical or maybe you have a low potassium and it's not critically low but there's no replacement you know they're gonna probably want replacement. Any change in condition or something that's going to need a new order and then you also call doctors a lot for like social types of things like hey this patient's getting supposed to get discharged today we needed an order for home health or whatever like every system's different but for the most part you're always calling doctors about those things orders whether it's orders for medications or procedures things like that a change in status or lab values things like that. That's kind of like the bulk of what you call doctors about. I hope this gives you guys a little insight and if you liked it give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys next time. Bye!