Fundamentals of Nursing Q 479
The nurse is obligated to follow a physician’s order unless:
A. The order is a verbal order.
B. The physician's order is illegible.
C. The order has not been transcribed.
D. The order is an error, violates hospital policy, or would be detrimental to the client.
Correct Answer: D. The order is an error, violates hospital policy, or would be detrimental to the client.
The court held that nurses have a duty to question a physician’s order if they think it is in the patient’s best interest to do so and to delay discharge if they believe discharge deviates from acceptable standards of care.
Option A: The term physician’s orders has outlived its appropriateness. Nurses have an ethical duty to be members of collaborative teams. Communication, consultation, and interdisciplinary cooperation are the benchmarks for quality outcomes. Other professionals communicate without issuing orders to each other—by continuing to use this phrase, nurses support a linguistic and symbolic discounting of their autonomous and accountable practice.
Option B: Begin with asking a physician for the prescriptions rather than the orders when admitting a patient. At the next nursing meeting or roundtable in the institution, ask for the replacement of “physician orders” with “prescriptions” on the admission screen or at the next printing of forms. Acknowledge that these prescriptions aren’t just from physicians, but are also from NPs and physician assistants.
Option C: Nurses take no such oath, and are legally and ethically bound to question an inappropriate order from a physician. In fact, many actions described in physician’s orders are simply nursing practices that are fundamental to health maintenance: turn and position every two hours, oral hygiene, side rails up.