Does MD really stand for Mad Diva?

[OliveVinesRN]

Hello,you all. I am new here and I am glad to be here. Here's my rant:

I am so sick of doctors on a mission. These doctors come in and never have a kind word for any of the nurses. And if things are not going their way, they hitch a fit.

Like, for example, our CT scan machine was down over the weekend. Upon informing one doctor of this, he chewed my head off. As if I have any control over anything like that. Then another girl got yelled at by a doctor without just cause. The doc was mad because a patient's pain was not being controlled by his current pain meds. And she snapped at the nurse simply because the pt told the doctor that he couldn't get it when he wanted it, which was a total lie. I watched that girl work her tale off last night trying to make this ungrateful man comfortable. The doctor prescribed the pain meds PRN, every 2 hours and that's exactly how the nurse was giving it. Before 30 minutes have gone by, the man would be on that call light complaining of pain again. The nurse called the doctor about it and got slaughtered for it. And when our nurse supervisor saw this nurse get frustrated and speak up to the doctor, she told the nurse that "if you ever talk to a doctor like that again, you will no longer have a job".

Then, today, right before time for me to get off (as usual), everything started going wrong. But the most significant thing that happened was that my patient's blood sugar spiked up to 519 at 0600. So, as protocol dictates, and as nursing judgement dictates, I called the doctor. How about I got blasted for it.

I cannot believe the doctor yelled at me for calling him about an abnormal blood sugar. The man was on a standard sliding scale. As we all know, that only cover blood sugars between 60 and 400. When I checked the man's blood sugar, the glucometer couldn't give me a value because it was so high. So, I called the lab for them to draw blood to get an accurate reading. When the results came back, I immediately called the MD.

He said, and I quote: "That man is on Decadron (which wasn't true because he was on Solu-Medrol) and that is why his blood sugar is elevated. Why are you wasting my time with this? Give him 20 units of R and don't call me anymore. I'll take care of my patients!"

Okay, that just blew my freaking mind. :uhoh21: And when we report these rude, disrespectful creeps, nothing is done about it. I don't know about you all, but this puts undue stress on me. Especially when I know I have done all within my power to take care of their patients to the best of my ability. Much of the time doing it all with very limited resources and short staffing. Some patients will never be satisfied and the doctors take anything they say as truth. They never try to ask us our point of view. They just come in and fuss in accusative tones and rant and rave until they get their way. And they usually do.

When are the administrators and nursing supervisors going to realize that the way doctors behave contributes to the continuing shortage of nurses? I know doctors are literally cash cows for the hospital, but what about us? What about our feelings? It discourages me because I love taking care of people, but I won't continue to let doctors disrespect me like that. I wonder if we all took a stand, would the hospitals start listening? If there are no nurses, then the doctors won't be able to admit the patients. I don't understand why they can't see it that way. Well, I for one will be very present at the upcoming staff meeting and they will hear about this. But I want to know how you all feel abou this issue? What do you all think about doctors and how they treat us nurses?

[psalm, RN]

...when a pt. is verbally abusing me for prn meds an hour early I document, quote, etc. that I explained to pt. when med is due. And/or if I call the doctor about a pain med not working, If a doc gets mad, oh well, I am still advocating for the pt. Alll I can do after that is try to encourage the pt. to work with the med, ie lights dimmed, tv off or low volume, limit caffeine, decrease stimuli, etc. AND document it. Then I can leave a note on pt chart for the morning doc to see that I did what I was supposed to do. If there is any question of what I did for the pt. c/o pain, it is not only documented in nursing notes, but noted for doc, and if the pt is particulary difficult, I will write an incident report to cmh.

[Dayray, RN]

I agree direct is the best way still there are some Doctors that simply will not respond well to a nurse that is anything less then submissive.

For the most part OB's tend to be the best when it comes to respecting nurses. When I have had a few problems with them a direct approach usually works. That is to say we both state our concerns and mutually agree on a course of action and even apologize for the disagreement. If they are rude or abrupt a hard stare and silence is usually all that is needed to correct it. I also didn't see nearly as many problems in the ICU. In both of those areas doctors are highly dependent on nurses and even the mean ones know they can't sacrifice that relationship. Most of the examples I gave were from other floors.

However in my department MDA's are constantly seeking conflict with the nursing staff. They have issues with the amount of autonomy we have and take every opportunity to assert them selves as the almighty doctor hovering over the insignificant nurse. When in the past I have tried to address issues with them in a direct and diplomatic manner they throw a fit and I'm left in a worse position then if I had just remained silent.

Also back when I floated to other areas in the hospital I found that doctors outside of OB tend to be much less respectful of nurses. Verbal abuse and rudeness are fairly common. Not all the doctors were that way but many of them were. Some even threw charts and many of them would yell and call names. If a nurse chose to address the issue with them they met with little success. I have actually seen nurses disciplined for walking away from a doctor that was yelling at them.

When I was fresh out of LPN school I had a situation that quickly taught me the way things are.

A doctor treated me very poorly in front of a patient. I left the room and told my manager about it. My manager acted very concerned and brought both the doctor and I into her office. My manager asked the doctor what had happened. The doctor yelled and threw a fit then left. My manager didn't say a word to her. After she left my manager told me to just try and not take any of her patients. I was shocked by how helpless my manager seemed to be. I was also scared that this doctor would cause problems for me.

So as childish as it may seem I have found ways to get my point across. Sometimes I have to take a step back and make sure that I'm not responding out of pride. I also wouldn't resort to any of these little tricks with a doctor that would respond to a more appropriate discussion. I won't allow myself to be petty and go tit for tat or get into power struggles. What I do is to find a way to keep them from abusing me. If we allow abuse then it will get worse and soon you find your self in a position that you cant get out of.

Some of the things I wrote about in my other post are funny and I do have to admit I got a kick out of doing them. Still I don't do it to get back at them. I do it because it makes it less attractive for them to abuse nurses. You will never convince some doctors that nurses are human beings who deserve respect or even common courtesy. You can however show them that it's not a good idea to treat nurses badly.

[kadokin, ASN, RN]

I have a ~gift~, if you will, of doing this very thing. I can cut a doctor down a couple of notches...all with a smile on my face. Maybe the southern thing helps.

For instance, a urologist was doing a consult in the ER and he was pitching himself a little fit because a certain thing was not where it was supposed to be. I just treated him like the 5 year old he was acting like. "Well, bless your heart, you're just all upset over this, aren't you? Hold on a minute and I'll help you... it's going to be ok" He just stood there redfaced and confounded and my co-workers were running for cover to let their snickers loose.

Whenever you respond to their infantile tirades, be sure you say and act in a way that would make them sound totally ridiculous if they complained about you. "She said bless my heart and said I was upset!!" At the very most, he could say I was being condescending....~sigh~ isn't that a nice reversal of fortune?

I like your approach, LeahJet.:rotfl: