[mother/babyRN]

I wondered if it was a good idea to start this topic, but something tells me everyone has SOME story or event to relate regarding a doctor or other staff member... You know how sometimes those doctors can get ridiculous and say or do things to REALLY infuriate or otherwise mess up your shift..Hope people feel free to share some stories of funny and not so funny situations they somehow mitigated either with assertiveness or humor...Let those upcoming labor and delivery peole know what REALLY goes on! And maybe offer advice on how to handle some of the more difficult situations....

[mother/babyRN]

Ok everyone, this isn't probably very funny, but it was to us at the time. We have an OB guy who likes to get down and dirty (not what you're thinking!, in that he tends to make a mess of the room and himself during delivery. He is the only doc I know that somehow manages to get blood on the ceiling. He also was of a habit of wearing clogs without shoe covers, so they were absolutely disgusting. We pleaded for him to clean them. He refused. We pleaded that he wear shoe covers. You guessed it. He refused. SO, one night while he was not on call, SOMEONE ( I won't mention who), snuck in and disposed of the offending shoes...He suspects us, but no one, until now, has ever confessed...He is still uncertain as to whether HE misplaced them...
And, with another doc, who was famous for being volitile to the point of occasionally throwing things, during one tense delivery when the delivery suite was full and hopping, I guess I didn't do something as quickly as he wanted and he threw a stool ( of the furniture variety ) at me...Somehow I remained calm , walked up to him and quiety whispered in his ear low enough so the patient and family couldn't hear, that the next time he decided to throw something at me, he should better his aim and actually hit me as I had seen his home and had a million ideas on how I would re decorate it should it someday end up in my possession...He never threw another thing......Come on, I just KNOW you all have been picked on or otherwise affected by some experience in good old labor and delivery....
My first night in the nursery ( coming from a telemetry cardiac unit, you must understand), a baby I was holding had a laryngospasm and started turning blue. I immediately wanted to intervene and DO SOMETHING, when the seasoned nursery nurse told me to talk to the baby and be gentle...I wanted to call 911 or a code...I thought she was out of her head..But, as she gently took the baby from me, and stroked him, murmuring with motherly like noises, the spasm resolved , and all was well. And for me, yet another lesson learned....
Then I had a patient going into pulmonary edema on the floor ( well, not the actual floor-post partum). I called the adjoining medical floor and asked them to send over some IV Lasix stat! They started laughing and thought it was a joke...They just couldn't believe that something so crucial would EVER happen in maternity..We get that a lot...Doesn't that just absolutely FRY you????
There are a couple of my not very interesting stories.. Would LOVE to read some of yours!

[OBNURSEHEATHER]

Originally posted by mother/babyRN
I remained calm , walked up to him and quiety whispered in his ear low enough so the patient and family couldn't hear, that the next time he decided to throw something at me, he should better his aim and actually hit me as I had seen his home and had a million ideas on how I would re decorate it should it someday end up in my possession...

I'm going to store that one away in my memory for later use!

We really have a good group of docs. Some minor attitude, but nothing really atrocious. The problem at my hospital lies between the PP and L&D nurses (PP nurses aren't REAL nurses, ya know?) One time while receiving a new admit, I walked into the room, full of visitors and family, and the L&D nurse started reaming me a new one, yelling about how long it took me to get into the room (mind you, she was JUST pulling the covers over the pt's legs). She went on & on, and I stood there silently. When she was done, I smiled at her and said "I'll be waiting outside. When you are ready to talk to me like the adult that I suspect you are, you can put on the call light"

I have no idea what she said to the family after I left, but she apologized to me when she came out. When I went back in the family commented that that was the first time she had shut her mouth all day.

Heather

[mother/babyRN]

AWESOME! In our facility we float between all three areas and anyone who thinks PP nurses aren't real nurses NEED THEIR HEADS EXAMINED! Thanks for sharing...Calm usually gets the job done, don't you think???

[at your cervix]

We also have great MD's in our facility and they are very calm (most of the time).
One night we called a doc in for a delivery and he was obviously in a very deep sleep when we called him because when we told him to come, he asked us how he should get there. We tried to keep talking to him hoping that we would wake him, but he just kept insisting that he didn't know how to get to the hospital! I think he soon realized that he was making no sense so he said that he would hang up and call back in a few min. Luckily, he did call back, more awake and he found is way to the hospital in plenty of time to deliver!

[mother/babyRN]

Thats good! We have a doctor who is so sleepy that he never remembers that he talked with us. In the morning he will ask who he spoke with, if anyone, and did "we" write some good orders?
While I was in the cardiac unit (as a nurse), the docs would have staff meetings weekly. Just so happened that I had a patient going into chf not long after one of these meetings, so when I called one particular covering person, I heard classical music in the background. Here I am pumped up, asking for abgs, ekg etc and he gives me no response! Finally, he asked me if I liked Pavoratti???? He must have held the phone out to the stereo for me to hear it, because everyone at the nurses station was gaping in horror as I screamed his name, then finally threw the phone down in disgust, instructing the unit clerk to pick it up and let him know I had ordered the appropriate labs and otherwise needed interventions and, assuming he could drive, told her to tell him to come in or be driven in to see the guy! Sometimes we have to work way too hard! This doc and I still laugh about it though I was NOT at all happy at the time!

[mother/babyRN]

Did I mention that these staff meetings had wine and cheese served at them????NOT so for the nurse staff meetings, though I would have enjoyed that immensely!

I was working night shift when this man in street clothes came to the desk and started reading charts. I asked him what he was doing there...he was quite offended, thinking I should recognize him immediately (he was a second year resident). I didn't know him very well, & hadn't seen him for about 6 months. In that time he had grown a full and very luxuriant beard!

[mother/babyRN]

They DO sometimes think they walk on water, don't they??Thanks for sharing.....

[BugRN]

About 1989 I was working in L/D in an old condemmed building of a major city hospital. New unit was under construction. Our "labor suite" consisted of one large gray cold room lined from wall to wall w/ about 10 stretchers seperated by a curtain only. The majority of our pt.'s were Haitian, non english speaking women and culturally their labors were very loud and vocal. I remember many nights monitoring several early labors who sung the whole night through. I should say chanted, the whole room was chanting, singing and " clicking" w/ their tongues. The room was hot and dark and I felt like I was in a bush station somewhere in the jungle. It was quite captivating! This vocalization was a part of the culture of laboring women in Haiti, but done in unison was amazing!! I still can hum the tunes and I'm immediately drawn back to it. It was a bit hard sometime to distinguish real labor from the singing, writhing, and moaning that was just part of the program of these women. I'd swear someone was ready to push and she'd be a FT dilated, she was just acting the part!!
It actually was a blast to work there.