Communicating With Providers

Be confident
1. Trust your assessment skills.
2. Trust your instincts.
3. If you aren’t sure, talk to your nursing team.
Be informed
1. Know your patient- their orders, medications, past medical history, recent assessment information and vital signs
Be organized
1. Have important information/data in front of you when you call.
2. Have a plan/structure for the conversation
Be specific and clear
1. Use clear and direct language.
2. ALWAYS write it down and repeat it back any telephone orders or messages and have the provider confirm it.
Common tools to help with communication
1. SBAR
  1. Situation
    1. Who you are, where you are, what patient you are calling about. Brief sentence summarizing why you are calling.
  2. Background
    1. Why the patient was admitted, brief history of hospitalization, relevant past medical history.
  3. Assessment
    1. Your assessment of the patient with clear explanation of concerns.
  4. Recommendation
    1. Suggest what you think needs to happen for the patient.
      1. New prescription?
      2. Their review of the patient?
2. Closed loop communication
  1. Reciever repeats message back to sender
  2. Sender confirms the message
  3. Often documented as “Read back and verified”
    1. Minimize telephone orders
    2. Can be used for communication other than orders.

Nursing Concepts

Communication
1. Effective communication with providers is essential for safe patient care.
Professionalism
1. Nursing professionals are central to the communication processes in healthcare.
Teamwork & Collaboration
1. Nurses work in collaboration with other healthcare providers to ensure patients are safe and recieve appropriate medical care.

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Transcript

In this lesson we are going to talk about how to communicate with providers.

Communicating with providers can be really intimidating, but it is an essential part of providing safe patient care. It’s one of those things that gets easier with time and practice, but there are some basic things that you can do from the start that will make it easier. I remember the first time I called a provider in the middle of the night- I was terrified, but my charge nurse helped me prepare and she reminded me that it’s my job to keep my patient safe no matter what time of day it is! So I wrote down what I needed to say, made the call and got the meds my patient needed. And you are going to be able to do exactly the same thing. If you use a structure and plan ahead you can avoid awkward moments and keep your patient safe!

Some basic things to keep in mind are to be confident, be informed, be organized, be specific and be clear.

When it comes to patient care, you as the nurse are the most informed on that patients current and immediate status. You are there with the patient and that makes you the expert on that patient and what is happening so be confident in what you have assessed and what your concerns are. If you aren’t sure – talk to your nursing team, your charge nurse, shift leader and get their support and advice to help build your confidence.

Be informed- once you’ve decided you need to speak to a provider about a patient- take some time to inform yourself- know the patient’s history, medications, vital signs, recent assessment findings)

Be organized- have a plan for what you want to say when you call. Jot down a few notes so you can stay on target and don’t forget important things.

Be specific- if you are wanting a prescription for a specific med, if you are wanting them to come to see the patient, be specific in what your concerns are and what you are looking for them to do.

Be clear- this goes both ways. You need to be clear but so do they. If they say- ‘I’ll be there to see the patient shortly”, It’s okay to follow up on this and ask for a specific time they will be coming to see the patient.

SBAR is probably the most commonly used tool for communicating with providers. SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation. For the situation, you want to say who you are, where you are calling from and what patient you are calling about. Then give a very brief explanation of why you are calling. For Background- tell a little about the patient’s past medical history as well as what they are admitted for.

For assessment- tell them what your assessment findings are. Make sure that the assessment findings you provide are relevant to why are you are calling. If you are calling to get pain medicine for a patient they don’t care if they have some edema in their feet. Keep it all relevant to the specific problem at hand.
For recommendation tell what you are looking for- a prescription, for them to see the patient? Again be specific, be clear.

Another tool that is very important to use is closed loop communication- this would be used in emergency situations and procedures as well. All it means is that if a provider gives an order you repeat the order back to the provider for confirmation and the provider confirms if it is correct. In an emergency or procedural situations another step to this process might be that you verbalize when the task is complete – “5 mg Lorazepam given IV”

Okay, let’s take a few seconds to recap. Communicating with providers is an essential part of nursing practice. It can be intimidating but remember to be confident and make a plan. SBAR is the most common structure to use for communication. It stands for Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation.

Your priority nursing concepts when communicating with a provider are communication, professionalism, teamwork, and collaboration.

Remember to be clear with all communication- closed loop communication is essential for making sure orders and instructions are accurate.

We love you guys! Go out and be your best self today! And as always, Happy Nursing!