Orders direct medications, tests, procedures, monitoring frequency, activity limits, and consultations. They may be written, electronic, or verbal with subsequent authentication.
Verbal orders require readback and countersignature.
Alternative Names:
Doctor's Order, Medical Order
Why it Matters?
Orders establish the boundary between physician and nursing responsibility, since an order not carried out is a nursing issue while an inappropriate order is a physician issue. Verbal order documentation is the recurring dispute, because a nurse who acted on a verbal order the physician denies giving faces a credibility contest that readback documentation would have resolved. Electronic entry with timestamps has reduced but not eliminated that problem.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What boundary do orders establish?
Why are verbal orders disputed?
