I get it. Sometimes you don’t hear the phone ring. Sometimes you are in such a deep sleep you don’t hear it again. When that happens, I try the alternate number. When there is no answer there I make alternative plans.
This happens to everyone. Even me, after the thousands of call shifts I’ve covered in my career. Once upon a time my phone and the pager malfunctioned at the SAME TIME! I am not sure of the odds of that but I bet they are astronomical.
I should have bought a lottery ticket.
My point is that it happens. It happens often enough that I’ve developed a task list on how to deal with it.
I could call management. And I have when it is warranted. But that doesn’t get the patient, who was sick enough for us to be called in during the night, on the OR table. Calling the manager at the moment delays care. They would do the same thing I’m going to tell you anyway.
Pull out the staff phone book. Every OR has one. This is where the pager numbers, phone numbers, and alternate numbers are stored.
Start down the list until you find someone able to come in.
Off cookies if you have to.
Eventually, someone will say yes. Sometimes it is after you’ve called all the scrub techs and no one is answering their phone or available.
It is important to note that after 5 no responses (about 2 minutes) you should call the manager. In case they have to come in. But of the tens of times I have had to find another person to come in, this has never happened.
Another alternative is to call the people you know can handle the role in the OR. Some nurses, myself included, can scrub.
It is also important to cultivate a list of contacts that probably won’t say no to you. Don’t tap that resource too often, or you will burn them out.
The next day have a friendly chat with your manager about the problems overnight.
There you have it. What to do if there is a case and the person on call is not answering their phone/page/alternate number.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 