The nurses in the SICU are excellent and are a great asset to patient care and your education. It is imperative that they are treated with courtesy and respect. Occasionally the nurses will ask you to assess a patient or perform a needed task. It is up to you to triage this request and seek help from the fellow or attending (in that order) if there is a question. It is, however, not acceptable, even unprofessional, to refuse the request or put it off indefinitely. If it is a non-urgent interruption, a polite “thank you” will do. If it is an urgent interruption, it should be dealt with immediately. If it is unclear, ask the attending or fellow for counsel, but most of the time any questions or concerns can be solved by simply going to the bedside and directly assessing the patient.