Baaaad day!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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Had a doctor today tell me, "You think you are a f*****g super nurse but you're not g** d*** it!" Why? Because I questioned why he had a patient on the OR table for 16 minutes with a tourniquet inflated and not performing surgery because he was on the telephone in his office! (Now, the patient is awake - can you say tourniquet pain? and we charge by the minute in the OR - NOT CHEAP. No wonder insurance companies scrutinize so much). I was advocating for my patient, and this was the response I received from him. Besides what he said above, he also told me that I am not there to police the doctors, and to mind my own business. HELLO!! Taking care of patients is my business. Talked to administration - basically was told to sweep it under the carpet. They won't do anything. Anyone out there actually have a facility that does not tolerate this behavior???

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

Our facility is a not-for-profit hospital. Surgeons that bring in paying patients that offset the indigent care can basically get away with whatever they want to because we need them to choose our hospital to do surgeries in.

It's quite competetive here. A hospital five minutes away just built a new OR to suck up to surgeons.

I can't say if they tolerate that kind of behavior in our OR, since I don't work there.

What you can do is to continue to advocate for your patients, even if it means more cussing out. Then you continue to report him and report him and report, if that what it takes to take care of the patients.

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Pretzlgl-

Did you get anywhere today? I hope you don't let this slide under the carpet. Let us know what happens......

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You guys are absolutely right that the surgeons get away with this behavior. (Because they bring in the $$$). It really is a shame. I called in sick today - didn't sleep much last night, and had a pounding headache by this morning. Called in to my nurse manager - who surprisingly was very sympathetic. She called me back at about 11 AM to inform me that she spoke with the offending surgeon and that he wanted to call me at home. At first I hesitated, but then I figured what the heck - I can swear back at him now that I'm at home. :devil: I figured I would just hang up if it got out of control. When he called the first thing he said was "I'm really sorry". He totally admitted that it got out of control and that he was out of line. Anger management classes are in his future. (According to the director of surgery). So I guess something positive came out of this.

By the way - I'm done with OR - at least for now. My last day will be 12/31. Back to the ICU I go. Don't get me wrong - OR has been very good to me. Just kinda sick of the abuse from surgeons. It hasn't been this bad - but there is still much whining/complaining/backstabbing that goes on. Thanks all for your input. What do you think of how this was handled??

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

Pretzlgl,

Glad to hear that you are feeling a bit better about things.

Sounds like you were at least heard, because he is going to anger management classes, and that he apologized (I guarantee it was strongly suggested by directors above to apologize. So he may have gotten a major write up! Believe it or not some docs are very critical of each other and don't tolerate that kind of stuff when it comes to light.)

We have an incident report to report physician incidents. Even though I don't always have the confidence it will do any good, I continue to report MDs who behave inapprorpriately, or take two hours to call me back, or whatever, because even though my hospital is sucking up to them to bring in the bucks, I'm still going to be heard, and heard, and heard again.

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Maybe someday someone will leave him on the table with a tourniquet inflated for 16 min. around his neck.

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Originally posted by oramar

Maybe someday someone will leave him on the table with a tourniquet inflated for 16 min. around his neck.

:rotfl:

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Pretzlgl,

My sympathies on this situation--you were totally in the right, and treated your patient the way we would all wanted to be treated in that situation. The surgeon sounds like a total jerk-not only for verbally abusing you, but for his disregard of the patients's best interest. As the patient was awake, s/he was also a victim of the surgeon's verbal abuse.

Glad that you administration is working to resolve the issue, including making the jerk go to anger management classes.

I'm sorry the OR is losing you--you sound like the kind of nurse that OR's desperately need, but best of wishes for you new position.

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POLITELY SAY TO THE ADMINISTRATION,REMEMBER THAT DOCTOR IN BOSTON RECENTLY THAT LEFT HIS BACK SURGERY PATIENT IN THE OR MIDOPERATION WHILE HE WENT TO THE BANK. REMEMBER WHO REPORTED HIM, RESULTING IN MUCH EMBARASSMENT FOR THE HOSPITAL THE DOCTOR AND I'M SURE A FORTHCOMING LAWSUIT.IT IS OUR JOB TO ADVOCATE FOR OUR PATIENTS AND IF THE DOCTOR GETS EMBARASSED MAYBE HE SHOULD PUT HIS PATIENT FIRST IN THE FUTURE THEN HE WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT A SUPERNURSE HAVING TO HELP HIM PUT HIS PRIORITIES STRAIGHT.

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