Doctors yelling

klone, MSN, RN · Jul 9, 2015

Oh, dear. Not okay. At all. I have never and would never put up with someone getting into my face and yelling. I can't say that it's EVER happened to me. When I was a brand new fresh nurse, I had heard about one of our OBs who occasionally did that to nurses. Never to me, but he had to others. And it was tolerated. As a brand new nurse, I guess I didn't realize that that behavior is not acceptable.

It's NEVER acceptable. How's your job hunt going?

Oedgar · Jul 9, 2015

Not much on the job front. I however did just apply for a remote nurse/insurance appeal position. I doubt I hear anything. Never do. We have definitely made a new policy that those slips of paper pts bring with med list do not come back to us without a name. Adding to the docs anger was this was a new pt. I put her in room and told his nurse. Well she forgot.. it was a bad day and she was flustered. So she actually called pt thinking she she had left when she was right there in room.

pfchang · Jul 10, 2015

I thought you had decided to leave a few months ago It's not ok to be treated like that. I never was the subject of that kind of infantile behavior. I would have spoken to the doc about it calmly, prob a day or two later but I could not have let that go. And had I been the person who made the mistake, I could not have lived with myself watching someone else get reamed for it. What a ****** thing to do.

Oedgar · Jul 10, 2015

Finally... finally have a date I can walk away.... my torture should end by August 31st. It will likely be winding down the week prior. My replacement has been hired and soon I will be training her.

Oedgar · Jul 10, 2015

Oh and I do plan to speak w him. He has been excited at the idea I will be their prn nurse. The next time it comes up I will tell him his temper has made that impossible. I have heard stories of him behaving that way and saw it another time fortunately not directed at me then. So even though he was all smiles and brought treats to work today... I know understand what he is capable of when things don't go his way. Otherwise he is a very likable person but.... I do not wish to ever be at the wrong end of his wrath again.

greenerpastures · Jul 10, 2015

Why not just talk to him about it? It sounds like a clinic/office you work in. Professionally make an appointment with him to speak. As a grown adult, let him know it's not okay to speak to anyone like that. Ask him how he'd react if you yelled at him like that for every mistake he makes? I'm sure he has horrible handwriting or has messed SOMETHING up you could use as an example. Even if you aren't going to stay, it's good to give him your two cents worth, in a very professional manner, so that he can adjust his attitude as well.

Some docs will, some won't. I work in a hospital, but I had one doc literally SCREAMING at me on the phone about a request for a minimal increase in dose of pain meds for a stage IV cancer patient. I calmly asked him if he'd like me to repeat the order back to him in the tone he'd just used with me. He lowered his voice, listened as I repeated the telephone order, and hung up. A few hours later, he wandered up to the floor. No big deal, they come up at night sometimes. I sat down next to him to use a computer; I recognized him, he obviously doesn't know me from Adam. However, he looked at my name tag, smiled at me and said "Ah, the lady who put me in my place. Somehow I thought you'd be taller." He and I had a very nice discussion about how he'd had a big problem right before I talked to him, probably took it out on me. My soul almost fell out of my chair when he apologized for yelling at me. The best part - the patient I'd called him about actually walked by when we were talking, I pointed her out to him. He got to see WHY I'd asked him for the order. The perspective he got was amazing.

Now, some docs won't give a darn about how they talk to you.

My point is - maybe you need to give this doc some professional perspective before you leave. Might save someone else from wetting themselves in the future.

caliotter3 · Jul 10, 2015

When I worked in LTC, one of the MDs had a reputation for being a monster. It was so bad that nurses would go out of their way not to call him for anything. He included profanity in his tirades. One time he was called and he replied something such that "you all are only notifying me because you're covering your "rears" for the lawsuits" or something even worse. It was juicy. The nurse who was on the receiving end of this was told by the DON to document the conversation, word for curse word, in the patient chart. She did.

Oedgar · Jul 10, 2015

removing thread

WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN · Jul 11, 2015

I had a doctor put his finger in my place and tell me to "never do that again." What I did was my job. As the head nurse. In a pain clinic. I had to manage the flow of patients and he wanted to micro-manage me.

I told him right then and there that he is not my father nor my husband and NO ONE puts their finger in my face. I wrote him up for creating a hostile environment and then he wrote me up for insubordination. [by the way, neither my dad nor my husband ever dare do that to me].

I do not miss him. The hospital did not give him a contract to sign when they decided to contract all of the providers of the system's outpatient clinics.

PMFB-RN, RN · Jul 11, 2015

Anyone getting up in my face and yelling at me is most likely to find themselves getting slapped up-side the head.

xoemmylouox, ASN, RN · Jul 24, 2015

You do not have to tolerate this. I worked with an MD who would treat some like that. He felt superior than just about everyone else in the world (he was pretty darn smart). Regardless.. If you would allow him to talk to you like you were beneath him, he would. However if you stood your ground and informed him he wasn't going to speak to you like that again - he never did. Some just need to be reminded they are not God and that they need to treat others with respect.