[VivaLasViejas]

I wonder what "too aggressive" means when it comes to being a patient advocate and refusing to just let it go when someone under your care is in pain? Did you stalk the doctor down the hall and out to the parking lot? Smack him upside the head? Make threatening phone calls to his house at three in the morning? No, of course not..........therefore, you were not 'too aggressive', IMHO. Maybe you spoke to the MD in a less-than-respectful tone of voice, maybe you didn't bow and scrape---that's no excuse for his allowing his patient to go without adequate pain relief.

I'm all about diplomacy when asking an MD for something on behalf of a patient; generally, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and I usually get what I want. But when diplomacy fails---and a patient suffers as a result---I have absolutely no problem with going around the physician, over him, behind him, or THROUGH him if need be.

Ya done good.

[LoriAlabamaRN]

You absolutely did the right thing. One measly milligram of morphine to challenge this amount of pain is like trying to put a bandaid on a sucking chest wound. The doctor is obviously not thinking clearly.

[JoeyDog]

I am proud of your for advocating for your patient!!!! Just be greatful that you don't have to deal with that doc very often. What a jerk wad!!!!

Ya know something that has always struck me as odd is that to get into med school you have to do a ton of volunteer work and what not to show that you care about people, have a desire to serve the community, and so on. IMO a lot of docs (not all) seem to be really lacking that "I care" quality. I guess it got replaced with the "bow in my prescence" quality after they graduated. Dunno just my opinion.

[barbyann]

OMG...MD is a jerk! I was in a similar situation one time. I was sooooo frustrated by MD's lack of response/compassion. Hospice referral had been made but they had not seen pt yet. I went out on a limb and called the Hospice On-call (weekend morning). I asked her what my next move should be. She was a breath of fresh air. She told me that this was exactly what Hospice was in place for and she came to the hospital within the half-hour. She called MD and had a morphine drip started within the hour. God Bless Hospice! They are my heroes. You did everything right for your pt., I guess it all comes down to you win some, you lose some. If you are in the same position again dont be gun shy......you got it right!

[momdebo]

Your actions were right on, you were being the patient advocate, something to think about and it's a thing I've noticed, the docs we don't deal with that often seem to be difficult to work with, I wonder in those cases, why don't we see them that often, we have a couple and they are a real pain, they often seem very defensive, uncooperative etc. The other thing to think about is how often do patients ever say the same thing to the doctor that they tell the nurse, this has happened to me about a bazillion times, ex: I was just in the room and patient denies pain or states they have severe pain, doc walks in and they say the exact opposite, best defense against this kind of thing is document,document,document, exactly what that patient says and demonstrates. and as for management, I've only had one manager that backed the nurses and she was not well liked by doctors, other management, etc. If you know in your heart you did your job, let the rest of it be the doctors problem.

[DR2004RN]

Dear, you have my support. You did just what you should have for this patient. He was telling you he was in pain, and it was your responsibility to advocate for him. I know I would want someone to advocate that much for me if I was the one in that bed. If that time ever comes, I want someone just as compassionate and hardworking as you are to take care of me. Try not to let the fact that the patient was reassigned hurt your feelings too much, you did what any compassionate nurse would have done. He was only reassigned because the doc has a stick up his you-know-what. You did exactly what you should have done. Continue to take care of all of your patients that way. You sound like a GREAT nurse. Take care, keep us posted.

[DonnaRN66]

I can't stand supervisors who always take the doctors side without listening to the nurse