overworked, overwhelmed doctors!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

situation bad situation bad!!!!!!

yikes today was one for the records lemme tell ya!

as you all know thru my previous moaning and complaining I'm working at the desk on my unit (only one more week left of that though, yay)

okay so today a family member calls SCREAMING

yelling , swearing , too upset to calm down etc

stating that her father hasnt been eating for a week. this is the first I hear of this and so I promise to investigate and get back to pt family member.I look in the chart, no charting by the MD for five days, nursing notes document that pts not eating and that MD notified , no orders etc etc...

so I page the MD and get no response, talk to my Unit administrator about the escalating situation and how the family member isnt able to even listen to what I'm saying to her at the moment cuz she is so angry, pt representative gets called also to get in on the situation, family member calms down and thanks me for my involvment, so were okay on that level.

til the MD shows up on the floor, uh oh.......

I approached him with my concerns about the pt and the families concerns and the fact that they are complaining etc

and he said and I quote "I dont want to hear about any concerns , you can tell the pts family to go f' themselves"

i know the dr isnt pissed at me but I had to tell him that that isnt appropriate and that my job is to liase with him on the pts behalf to get the pts needs met, he insists that he has seen the pt everyday and talked to his kids in detail about the situation, i point out that he hasnt documented this in the chart, he insisted he did , opens the chart, finds out that I am right and says "well i'll do a late entry but im swamped and have too many pts to deal with and i dont want to deal with this pt or his family anymore"

the UA and the pt representative are here for this little conversation and they intervene, taking me nicely out of the situation

unfortunately the MD goes in to see this pt and apparently tells him that he doesnt want to care for him and that he will try to find another MD to care for him but it will be difficult because of his family............what?:!??!?!?!??!?!!?

I dont doubt that he said this to the pt because the pt said word for word exactly what the MD said to us before going into this pts room to see him

and there is no way this pt overheard the dr when he was speaking to us and made it up.....

so the UA called the chief of medicine who basically said let it go for the weekend and he will follow up monday

is it just me or is this unacceptable?!?!??!?!

the dr spent great lengths explaining how busy he is, told us all about his pt load, and how he doesnt like being affiliated with our hospital cuz he is overworked, to which we basically said we can empathize but he should bring it forward to his superior, as we cannot change the fact that he has pts on our floor that need his attention.....

hello but are we not all overworked??!?!

drs are human beings too but there are ways to behave and courses of action to take to get the situation handled.

so now of course the pt is crying and thinks his dr hates him and his family, the family is even more angry and talking law suits etc.......

and I'm wishing I called in sick for the day!!!!!!!!

sorry for the long drawn out entry but wow I had to get that off my chest!!!!!!!!!

Gee, I wonder why those of us who are constantly overworked and overwhelmed still manage to take care of the patients and respond to their needs. I know! :idea: Because we are not egocentric whiny-azzed jerks.

(((((((((((((((Wendy))))))))))))))) You are awesome, good handling of that situation!

Specializes in CV-ICU.

Wow, Wendy, you work in a very unique place!:eek: I cannot even imagine some doc doing that; and I've seen some outspoken docs through the years! I'm so glad for you that you will be done with this charge nurse job in a week-- it sounds like its' been one trial-by-fire after another for you! You deserve a vacation after your step down from that job. :kiss :rolleyes: At least you have lived through this period and it sounds like you have survived it mostly intact. Take care of yourself, Kid, and be sure and remember this in the future. You have told a couple of stories here that I have never heard of in my 34 years as an RN! I wouldn't care to work there.

las vegas baybee - i appreciate your support

and some of the paralells I notice in the things you type and I am thinking is almost scary!

we would be great friends in "real life" I'm sure

that or worst enemies cuz were so alike

but lets go with friends, cuz anyone who likes cartoons is alright by me!

jenny my wise wise pal, yeah its true , it can be brutal , some days are worse than others , I know that some of the things I type sound overly negative but honestly I wouldnt be where I am if there were not some good times to go along with the bad.... I have made some excellent friends, increased my knowledge base about a zillion fold , learned how to deal with patients families successfully (I think)

and have seen team work in action and renewed my faith that it works for the most part..

I may tend to type the negatives a lil more than the positives just because I find you all so supportive and as a relatively new nurse I find some things shocking and are unsure how to handle them

in this particular case I believe that intervention is neccesary before this MD has a breakdown, hopefully that will happen

once again thanks for the support

I thought maybe perhaps I was the only one who really found this unacceptable etc

cheers!

Originally posted by LasVegasRN

Gee, I wonder why those of us who are constantly overworked and overwhelmed still manage to take care of the patients and respond to their needs. I know! :idea: Because we are not egocentric whiny-azzed jerks.

(((((((((((((((Wendy))))))))))))))) You are awesome, good handling of that situation!

innit, innit, innit!!!!!!!!!

and I repeat, what if a nurse acted this way......

and ya'all know micro has utmost respect for doc's, but for doc's that are doctors true to their hipprocratic oath.....

Specializes in CV-ICU.

Wendy, I don't think you've been overly negative in your posts here; but between the one-upmanship of your teams bickering (posted on another thread here) about too much work and now this posting about the doctor refusing to see the pt. and the family you have had 2 incidents that I'd never seen (yet) in my own experience. I am so glad you have good experiences also, since it's the good experiences that make us come back to work each day. Remember to take care of yourself Wendy, I want you to be a working nurse for a long time! I wouldn't mind being your pt. in the future (but I'm not planning to be anyone's pt. for a long time!LOL!) :D

and i don't wanna be in the wendy patient innit group for very long either, but Wendy could take care of me anytime..........

hey, Jenny P.........

nice answering after you, because it is your wisdom that shows through..........

and of course my insomnia........

Originally posted by micro

innit, innit, innit!!!!!!!!!

and I repeat, what if a nurse acted this way......

and ya'all know micro has utmost respect for doc's, but for doc's that are doctors true to their hipprocratic oath.....

((((Wendy!))))) Incredible!!

Las VegasRN & Micro.....I so totally agree....

I'm still trying to picture a nurse doing this, and I can't. :eek: Not without being fired on the spot. That doc should NOT be practicing til he gets his stuff together, and his boss's response was obviously fraternalistic. SOMEONE should've done SOMETHING for that patient, RIGHT THEN AND THERE. Totally blows me away that this doc and his boss just opened the door to a lawsuit REAL REAL WIDE.

--JMHO, :zzzzz

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

hapeewendy----

Gee, I remember being in a similar situation about 20 years ago working in a poor innercity teaching hospital.

QUOTE:

"so the UA called the chief of medicine who basically said let it go for the weekend and he will follow up monday"

That's not what happened when I called the chief of Medicine after attending blew up. He came down to examine patient and wrote appropriate orders; Called doc and met with him next day-- suspended from admitting patients for a month and work scrutinized.

As charge LPN, I also had a new first year resident that checked patient but blew me off that this patient was developing respiratory failure (he was only doc assigned to nightshift).

Called night shift RN supervisor who refused to allow callme to be put call thru to attending ( this was 1980, standard practice then) as "resident has to learn how to handle these situations".

Finally called ER doc and said if you don't intervene patient will die; she arrived in 10 minutes and patient DID CODE, was recusitated but died in CCU 3 days later. My documentsation was every 15-30 minutes in that chart including RN supervisor statements. Head of unit, Chief of Pulmunology took me asside next day and gave me his home phone number to call him with ANY concern's about patients on HIS unit---we placed phone # in narcotic box for all to have emergency access to him.

Hope you wrote up an incident report. While this incident is fresh in your mind now, write down it's scenerio, actions you took and MAIL it to yourself--leave unopened as LAWSUIT clear hear. Can just hear lawyer stating that charge nurses should have been aware of situation and gotten intervention sooner. CYA.

Totally agree with Jenny, LAs Vegas, micro and sleepyeyes posts.

QUOTE sleepytime:

I'm still trying to picture a nurse doing this, and I can't. Not without being fired on the spot...

SOMEONE should've done SOMETHING for that patient, RIGHT THEN AND THERE.

Let us know followup to this saga. You handled it MOST appropriately. When every family blowing steam, you'd do best to calm them NOT make more inflamatory statements. This doctor clearly needs R+R.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Just in:

BEDSIDE MANNER SALVES MALPRACTICE MALADY

The Tennessean

A new study indicates that it is possible to predict which doctors will be sued for malpractice, and suggests that a better bedside manner could ward off lawsuits.

http://www.tennessean.com/business/archives/02/06/18699097.shtml?Element_ID=18699097

I know what you mean. I have had my family doctor for many years. He has calmly worked on my health problems with me for many years. Sometimes he is right, sometimes he is wrong. If something appears to be wrong we back up and and try again. I don't think I would ever sue him for the mistakes, everybody is wrong about somethings sometimes. I particularly appreciate the fact that when I get a little wacky about feeling poorly he is calmly acceptant.

PS It helps to have good people in the office to. My doctor has a secretary/medical assistant that is the best I ever met. Everyone just loves her.

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