And then the MD said.....

[NurseOnAMotorcycle]

"I've got a second. You take care of that one. I'll grab [CNA] and boost this one."

The situation: Radiology calling for a pt who needs a new IV for contrast with a transporter at the door, tapping her foot. On the other bed was a sweet 98yo lady asking for help to slide up in bed.

I told him I'd tell on him. He just grinned.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

I have had lots of doctors pitch in over the years, esp. to help pull a patient up. If they don't, maybe they don't realize you need help.

[Kidrn911]

I wonder if the difference of Docs helping is teaching hospitals or big city hospital environments vs small community type hospitals?

My experience has been that big city type of hospitals docs will help, eve taking to the bathroom. I seen it too many times, But the small community type of hospitals, it is beneath a doctor to work up a sweat.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

I feel like our mid-levels are the least likely to help out and will often write needless and often belittling nurse communication orders to do things which are obvious and already being done.

Residents/attendings are a mixed bag. Our surgical resident can have slow days on our service (they usually just scrub into a different service) but one particular resident took a very long-term, very well-liked patient outside for nearly five hours one day in his wheelchair. People got a little frantic although the patient was immobile so obviously hadn't eloped.

We have one particular surgeon that really seems to enjoy giving RN report when the PACU gets busy.

[Clementia]

I had a GI surgeon come up to the floor with a patient one night and start an NG for me. This was a young, anxious patient, and I'm not too good at starting NG's, so I was really surprised when the doc just did it without my even asking. Of course, the patient later pulled the tube out...and when I called that same doc to tell him, he was very nice about it.

[rnsrgr8t]

I am a pediatric urology PNP and often will assist my attendings in doing neonatal circumcisions. We normally use the procedure room in our clinic (at our hospital, all of our specialty clinics are lined up together) but this day the room was in use. My hospital has a great unit where patients recover from sedated procedures/imaging, where they can get IV Remicade etc. We had asked the nurses if we could use a room in their unit to do this circumcision and they were fine with it. The mom of this baby could not come with us to watch the circ (we always give them the option) because she had brought the baby's toddler siblings with her to the appointment. So the MD I work with and I swaddle up this cute baby, bring him over to the day unit and do the circ. Of course the room is a mess when we were done but I wanted to get this baby back to his Mom. I looked at the nurses and told them I would be back in 2 minutes to clean up. So I bring the baby back to his Mom, come back to the unit and proceed to clean up all the mess from the circ (you would not believe every thing you need for one). I turned around and the nurses are standing in a line looking at me in shock with their mouths open. I asked them why they were staring at me. They told me, "NOONE every cleans up after they do procedures here. We always have to do it!". I told them there was no way I was going to leave that for them to clean up. They were doing us a favor letting us use the room and I would never leave that mess for them to clean up. My MD would have helped me too but he had to go to the OR so that left me. I may be a PNP now but I have not forgotten where I come from and would never leave something like that for my fellow nurses to have to clean up after me. I just could not get over how shocked they were. Would never occur to me to not clean up after myself. Sad state of affairs now a days! :)

[BostonFNP, APRN]

I feel like our mid-levels are the least likely to help out and will often write needless and often belittling nurse communication orders to do things which are obvious and already being done.

Do you call them midlevels to their face? That might be why....

We cover patients at our community hospital, and I can honestly say that the majority of providers pitch in and help with all the work. It's a big change from the major academic center hospitals where you get chewed out if you help a patient to the toilet because its "not your job/concern" as one attending told me.

[loveu123]

Our ED docs and residents are also very helpful. It made a big difference coming from the floor where I was called for simple task like straightening a blanket to the ED where docs are giving patient's food, water, pushing them in wheelchair and even helping clean patients up. We make sure we also reciprocate by being very helpful to them. Most of our docs and residents actually come in and introduce themselves to the nurses if they see a new nurse on the team.(I work at a level 1 trauma with too many nurses. lol)

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

Do you call them midlevels to their face? That might be why....

In private, I address them by their first names. In front of patients, if I say anything at all, it's "This is our Nurse Practitioner, First Name" which is how they introduce themselves to patients.

I get the pressure to have to prove yourself. My unit is mainly an acute care, NP-Attending driven unit and we have one NP who has been around longer than any of the attendings. Still.

[nursel56]

I just want to say on the "doctors aren't God" thing that I recall a doctor writing an entire blog entry about making it to work on a bad weather day and being stunned that the guy shoveling snow off the walkway from the parking garage was the CEO of the hospital. He reacted to that just as people here are . .people who get hung up on status-related trivia don't garner true respect.

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Our allergist came in to see a patient today in my clinic. Her 5-month-old son was with her and getting fussy for his bottle. Because his mom was across the room, she couldn't get up to give him his bottle fast enough, and he started to fuss. As she stood up to tend to her son, the doc picked up the bottle and held it til the kiddo got a grip on it himself. It was adorable.

[R!XTER]

I gotta say our ED team is great, most of our docs will help pitch in with lifting, foleys, IV's, etc. I do think a lot of it has to do with nurses "training" them to be helpful. My attitude is "we're a team, we all scratch each other's backs" so I am not scared to ask them for help. If I need help cleaning or lifting a patient and see docs standing around not doing anything urgent, I'll ask them for a hand. They're not gonna say no. The other day I had to transfer a really obese patient to a new bed. I knew it would take a lot of hands, so I asked some docs who were standing around chatting and they all said "sure". We had 4 people do the transfer and none of us strained our backs :)

Maybe the reason so many nurses are so shocked when doctors help, is because they never ask for help! Most of these docs are nice people and if you ask for a hand with a boost they wouldn't be totally rude and say no! The fact is there are still stereo-typical "roles" of doctors vs. nurses, and we as nurses can help break those stereotypes and make our lives a little easier if we train them right!

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

I think that there is also the factor of environment. In the E.D. (and prob ICU) we work with our providers very closely and there is less of a line between the professions as on the floors. Upstairs, they don't usually interact with the providers when they are rounding other than to say hello and get some orders. My friend Jessie (an MD) who I share snacks with is more likely to help me than the neurosurgeon who I see only once in a while and politely acknowledge.