Why are Nurses responsible for MD's
I work on a crisis intervention/ stabilization psych unit in a hospital. The hospital has a policy in which the MD must write or renew precaution orders on a daily basis for suicidal patients. The precaution sticker is on the physician order form and ALL they have to do is check a box and sign.
The nurses have a whole check sheet to do as well as timed visual observations. The nurses also have other patients, meds, notes, admissions, discharges, order transcriptions and no unit secretary,,,so constant answering of the phones!
The MD's have been lax in using the sticker form so the hospital's solution to the MD negligence problem is to now have the nurse call the MD if he fails to write this daily order. WHY DO NURSES ALLOW THIS NONSENSE???
What can the nurse do to put the responsibility back on the MD and not have to chase them around or make several calls to them?
Any ideas?????