Ask Our Nurses

Our Nurses

Our Triage Phone Nurses

We have a specially trained staff of registered nurses and pediatric medical assistants to answer many of your childcare and medical questions. Their training is based on the Pediatric Telephone Protocols developed by Dr. Barton Schmitt, a renowned pediatrician with over 100 books and articles to his credit. With these protocols our Advice Nurses can address feeding problems, colds, flu, constipation, breathing problems and a variety of other issues. They work closely with our doctors to assure that your concerns are resolved.

After business hours, your advice call will be answered by a pediatric triage service. You can reach them by calling 844-990-3616. These are all registered nurses who again use Dr. Schmitt's protocols and whom we have worked with for many years.

For questions on ingestion or exposure to chemicals, it's best to contact the Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222. These calls are free of charge. The Center is opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. For more info, visit our Poison page.

Additionally, many insurance companies offer a nurse advice line. Check with your insurance customer service department.

Finally, we have elected not to provide medical advice on our website. We believe each family deserves an individual assessment of their health concerns in order to assure the best possible care.

Answers to Common Questions

• If I have an emergency, can I just walk in and be seen?

  As a rule, we discourage walk in visits. If you really think it is an emergency, call us first, or if you're really worried, go to the emergency room, which is best equipped to handle true emergencies. Patients with appointments (and that will be you, of course) deserve to be seen as close to on time as we can manage. Walk in patients will be triaged by the nurse, and if stable, will be given the next available appointment. It's always to your and everyone else's advantage to call for a time.

• When might one see a PNP (Pediatric Nurse Practitioner) at Pediatricians of Dallas?

  We are privileged to work with two outstanding PNPs. We utilize our PNPs in order to see your child in a timely manner. There may be an occasion when your primary care physician is unavailable and in those instances there is a PNP available to see your child. You may see a PNP for any well child examinations or sick visits.

• What should one expect when seeing a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP)?

  When you schedule a visit with a PNP at Pediatricians of Dallas, the appointment format will be the same as seeing your primary pediatrician. Your child will be weighed and measured with a brief history obtained by the nursing staff. The nurse practitioner will then see you and your child–collect a history, review pertinent data for a well child examination, perform a physical assessment, order any necessary diagnostic examinations/immunizations, discuss important safety and health promotion tips, and treat any illnesses with appropriate medications. If the nurse practitioner feels a second opinion is needed during your visit, there will always be access to a pediatrician with whom the nurse practitioner can collaborate.

• What is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner?

  A Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) is a nurse that holds an advance degree, usually Master's of Science in Nursing, to practice as a nurse practitioner. This advanced training allows a nurse practitioner to perform physical examinations, diagnose and medically manage common childhood illnesses, and teaching with focus on disease prevention. A PNP holds a nursing license from the State Board of Nurse Examiners with a specialty designation that a PNP receives prescriptive authority and is allowed to prescribe medications to treat childhood illnesses. A PNP works in collaboration with a pediatrician in most settings. Many of the skills of a PNP straddle both the role of a nurse (assessments, histories, diagnosis, and teaching patient/families) and the role of a physician (order diagnostic exams, order medications, treat medical diseases and patient/family education). Scope of practice of a PNP:

  • Serve as health provider for well and sick children from newborn through adolescence.
  • Perform wellness and health maintenance examinations.
  • Perform developmental screenings.
  • Diagnose and treat common childhood illnesses.
  • Provide anticipatory guidance regarding common child health concerns.
  • Provide childhood immunizations.
  • Perform school physicals.

  (Above from http://www.napnap.org/PNPResources/PatientInformation/WhatIsPNP.aspx)

• What about camp forms, school forms or shot records?

  We will gladly complete these forms for you. In order to do this, your child should have a well child visit within the past 12 months. Visits for an illness address a specific problem and are not ordinarily comprehensive enough for us to complete these forms. There is no charge for completing these forms, but please allow us 48 hours. They can be mailed or faxed, if that is what works best for you.

• How do you handle prescription refills?

  Requests for prescription refills can be addressed to the advice nurse call line during office hours. Please allow 48 hours to be completed. Medications can not be refilled after hours.

• How often do you see infants the first year?

  After discharge from the hospital, infants are seen first when they are three to six days old. This visit concentrates on any issues from the birth time, expectations for feeding and weight gain and frequently involves one of our lactation consultants if the mom is breast feeding. The next routine well-child exams occur at two weeks, two months, four months, six months, nine months, and twelve months. Each visit helps us answer your questions, check for appropriate development, and update immunizations.

• Do you have separate waiting rooms for sick and well children?

  Yes, we have three separate waiting areas: a well and a sick waiting room and a newborn waiting room. The newborn waiting area is only for children 4 months and younger and only if they are well.

• How do you handle after hours calls?

  After hours calls will be forwarded to an on-call triage nurse. Please limit these calls to emergencies or urgent questions that you feel cannot wait until the following day. For our after-hours nurse, call 844-990-3616.

• What if I have a question but am not sure if I need to see the doctor?

  We have RNs and trained medical assistants to answer your questions during office hours. Please feel free to call at any time with any questions or concerns. If the advice line is busy, our staff will return your call within the hour (usually sooner).

• Will I always see the same provider?

  Most patients see the same doctor most of the time. There will be times when your chosen doctor is not available and you can have appointment times with one of the other doctors or the nurse practitioners. Some families choose to see different doctors or settle on a favorite substitute. Some children, as they mature, feel more comfortable with a doctor of the same gender, and siblings don't always agree. You get to choose, as you become acquainted with our staff and can make appointments with whichever provider you or your child prefers. Each of the providers has their own personality, but they all practice medicine in similar ways.

• What hours is your office open?

  We begin answering the phone every Monday through Saturday at 8:00am and appointments start at 9:00am Monday through Friday and at 8:30am on Saturday. Ordinarily, on weekdays, the last appointments of the day begin at 4:30pm, but we stay open everyday as late as is needed to see patients that need to be seen and have called for an appointment earlier in the day. There may be an additional fee billed for after-hours appointments. We are not open New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

• With which hospitals are your doctors affiliated?

  We see new babies every day at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. If a child is sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, we prefer Children's Medical Center, where we are on staff and have teaching responsibilities.

• How do you handle referrals of if my child needs to see a specialist?

  Need to see a specialist? Occasionally your child may need to see a pediatric specialist. If your insurance company requires a written authorization, it may need to be document in your chart for the specialist to receive Payment. Email your request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..