How rude are surgeons?

Joke:- How many cardiac surgeons does it take to change a lightbulb??

Ans:- only one but all he/she has to do is hold it in the air and the world will turn around him/her.

As a former Surgical Technician and Surgical Technician Instructor I submit the following research supported hypothesis on the so called "surgical personality":

"SURGICAL PERSONALITY - CAPABLE OF HANDLING DIFFICULT SITUATIONS, DOMINANT, FORCEFUL, SOCIALLY ASCENDANT PERSON WHO LEADS A FAST-PACED LIFE, AND FEELS HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS MORE INTENSELY THAN OTHERS, WHO IS AGGRESSIVE AND PREFERS TO COMPETE RATHER THAN COOPERATE, WITH NO RELUCTANCE TO EXPRESS ANGER WHEN APPROPRIATE, WITH HIGH ASPIRATION LEVELS AND WORKS HARD TO ACHIEVE GOALS, SELF-MOTIVATED AND WELL PREPARED TO DEAL WITH LIFE. "

http://www.apds.org/APDS2001n/APDS%2...iles/frame.htm

-HBS

I don't deal with alot of surgeons, per se, but all the OB-GYNs are surgeons, too..

Anyway I had a post-partum (2 day)and post surgical (fresh) patient in alot of pain- rigid, crying, refusing to move at all. She had a PCA, but reported pain scales of 7-10. I called the surgeon and started to say "The patient's pain is not well managed with her PCA... " He said "It's adequate" (click). Wha..?

I called the super and the patient's OB-GYN, reporting the converation to both. The OB-GYN gave me a one time order and was surprised at the surgeon terseness. I gave report that night about the situation and warned the oncoming that the one time dose was going to wear off about 4 am.

The night shift went through the same routine.

The next day the surgeon made a formal complaint about the night shift nurse (and not me).

You know what your job is. Report him to the pain team and the hospital ethics committee. Have his supervisor receive formal complaint. We are pt advocates, ABOVE ALL ELSE. If they do not have excellent nurses, look who it leaves for them!

I would say that for every rude surgeon that I know and work with, there is a rude nurse.
Fortunately those are few and far between.
I realize that there are a lot of rude surgeons, but I would be lying if I said that there were not as many rude nurses that I have had the privilege to work with/around. The only difference I see is that the rude nurse will "eat their young" and the rude surgeon will not. And why is that?

Because the rude surgeon has nurses to eat

But that goes both ways too.
Some surgeons are rude to nurses as are some nurses rude to surgeons.
Personally, it does not bother me when a surgeon is rude with me because I have enough backbone to not take it and to let the surgeon know that I do not appreciate the rudeness. And no, for the most part, that usually does not make the surgeon change his/her attitude, but it does make him/her check themselves when they are in their mood and dealing with me.
What does bother me is when my fellow RN, someone that I'm in the trenches with day in and day out (usually, but not always, one from the old school) tries to degrade me or make me feel inadequate because during report, I do not know what my patient's potassium level was last week at 2330. This is only one example, I have more, but I bet you do too.
I've been roaming the halls at my hospital for about 9 years now, and I make it a point to be as encouraging and open as possible to new nurses as well as the older heads. Especially when I'm asked the "how" and "why" patient related issues. Constructive criticism works well when it is given with the right tone during the right situation. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

I worked as a urology/general surgery nurse in the OR and the surgeons that were rude were the ones who were unsure of their skills/had poor patient outcomes, or were the ones who had been getting the royalty treatment for years and thought they were Gods. 80% of them were nice once they got to know you and realized you wouldn't put up with being treated like a sub-human being

Is there any correlation to exposure to anesthesia gases and rudeness?

Just kidding. Having worked in the operating room for several years (surgical technician) I just got used to it when some "jerk" went off on the staff.

Of course we were quick to correct any inappropriate behavior and let any staff know that abuse would not be tolerated.

But then again neither would incompetence. As the man said it goes both ways.

Roll Tide!

-HBS

Although I generally get the impression that surgeons have the propensity to be megalomaniacs who "look down" on nurses, there have been many exceptions. In the last 10 years, I have noticed a new "breed" who are true teamplayers who are entitled to a few "tantrums" in the OR once in a while..