A surgeon yelled at me...

Nurses Relations

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....so I hung up the phone in mid rant. I had 2 hypotensive patients. One was orthostatic; one was due to exsanguination. I'm on the phone with 4 doctors, CT, blood bank,the nursing supervisor,CVICU, and this jerk surgeon. I'm trying to talk to family and control my hot flashes all at the same time. He's yelling at me because orders from day shift weren't carried out. I very calmly and politely put the phone down and went back to work. The supervisor called me and told me that the surgeon wanted me written up. I told my supervisor what happened. He told me to write up the surgeon. So I did. Monday should be interesting. :angryfire

Hooray for the good guys!! You did great Molly!! One thing we do to doctors that are abusive on the phone ( and I realize that you didn't have time to do this during this call from this charming doctor, just a thought for the future) is to have another nurse listening on the line and INFORM the doctor that there are 2 nurses listening to his orders. Strength in numbers, even if it is just 2 of us. My fovarite line to this type of person is "When you earn my respect, you will get it, no matter what letters you have after your name. Until then, when you act like a child, you will be treated as one.":p

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originally posted by fedupnurse

you can use my line: "i did not hold a gun to your head and force you to go to medical school. i did not then hold that gun to your head and force you into (specialty here). if you didn't want to be here at this hour to deal with this problem you should have gone into dermatology." i cannot count how many surgeons and cardiologists i have said that to over the past 10 years. it has shut every single one of them up.

way to go. glad your supervisor supported you. too bad said supervisor wasn't there to actually help you deal with what sounded like a very unsafe situation!

keep up the good work.

absolutely the best i have heard!! i love it. it is definitely going into my "memory bank" for future reference. have a surgeon i need to try it out on!! thanks a million!!!:roll

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Mollymo ---> twak.gif

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Okay, Vegas. Where do you get the all the neat smilies?? :confused: :confused:

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Specializes in ER.

Just a thought- for all the supervisors out there- it is wise to make a personal visit to the floor when a nurse experiences an episode like this and offer moral support, and helping out as much as you can would probably be appreciated too. A phone call doesn't cut it in my opinion.

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You guys, your posts have been SOOOO helpful to me.

Ashamed to say it, I still struggle with the walk-all-over-me syndrome. (Only in nursing that is!) While I've never had a doc yell at me, I still feel I have to grovel when I call a doc in the middle of the night. WHY DO I FEEL THIS WAY??

I've been a nurse for only two years. I hope I get over it soon!

Mollymo, I hope if I encounter your situation, I'll respond just as you did!!

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Specializes in Adult internal med, OB/GYN, REI..

yeh i know what you mean....i am a new RN too, and i hate the fact that when you wake up the house doc you gotta go round and see if anyone needed to ask them anything or get orders for Pitocin, cuz You know if you call them up and to wake them, it had better be worthy.....i hate groggy diva house docs. so many a night i have been tempted to run past their room then knock, and run away....:devil:

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SpongeBob! Ha Ha Ha! That's so funny. But, it wouldn't be funny if I were his patient or I was taking care of his pts.

Lacy, can you get standing orders for this guys post ops so you don't have to deal with him so often?

Mollymo, I applaud you for standing up to that Doc.

"Were not gonna take it! Anymoooore!"

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