Awful Doctors

Nurses Relations

Published

As a newly graduated nurse, I am still in the midst of trying to grow in self confidence and improve my critical thinking skills. I have only been working as a nurse for four months now and there is this horrible doctor that works on my floor. This is not the first time this same particular doctor has chewed me out but this time, this was by far the worst.

Early in my shift, I received a critical potassium level of 2.8 and reported it to this doctor. She ordered me to start an IV 60meQ of potassium and to draw a potassium level stat after the IV was completed. To start off complications, the patient's IV site was infiltrated and I wasn't able to take the time to start a new IV until three hours later. She complained that the site was burning too much so I started it off at 50ml/hr instead of the prescribed 88ml/hr.

Later in the day, this doctor comes up to the floor and demands why the potassium level hadn't been drawn yet. I explained to her the situation and it was just horrible. This doctor raises her voice at me in front of the whole nursing station and says, "Then you should have called me and I could have easily written an order for KCl po! That her potassium was this low and that it's taking this long to get her potassium is ridiculous. This is just unacceptable!!" Silence fell from the whole audience and I just nodded my head and walked away. It took all the strength I had to not burst into tears.

Quite a few of my coworkers came up to me to hug me afterwards and it's well known that this doctor has a tendency to be this rude. I understand my mistake and it was a learning experience. If she had a problem that needed to be addressed, she could have easily taken me aside and I would never make the same mistake twice.

My day just went downhill from there. I had a new admit and a million new orders for my other patients. As soon as I clocked out for the night, I burst into tears. I dread going back into work tomorrow.

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
As far as the bullying, really? In the military we got yelled at all the time. When I became an NCO I yelled at my soldiers all the time. The reason? We were training them to deal with the stress of life or death situations. If they did something wrong that could get someone killed, they got yelled at.

*** When you were an NCO it was YOUR JOB to train and disipline junior enlisted people. You were their immediate supervisor. Nurses have people whose job it is to train and disipline them and it is NOT a physician. I am sure that you would not have tolerated a cilivian contractor yelling at your troops right?

And you can be sure they didn't forget or ever make that same mistake again. I don't see raising your voice at someone to be bullying.

*** IN the case of a physician yelling at a nurse it IS bullying. It creates a hostile work enviroment and results in harm to patient when nurses are too intimidated to interacte with the physician in a professional manner.

Now if they are literally screaming at you or using abusive language, then yeah, that needs to be addressed. Otherwise, rub some dirt on it and drive on.

Obviously, the hospital is not the military. People should not be yelling in the hospital. But it is a stressful place, and stressed people sometimes yell. It doesn't mean you have to run off and report them. You should just tell them their behavior is inappropriate

*** You are ignoring the context. There is a long history of physicians bullying nurses. Once again the physician is NOT the nurses supervisor and in fact is not in the nurses chain of command at all. The nurse has several layers of supervisors above her who are responsible for training and disiplining the nurse. The physician overstepped her authority and bullied the nurse.

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I understand the MDs view but it is these types of intimidating behaviors that nurses avoid calling them because they never know how they will respond. These behaviors can result in a poor outcome for the patient. Even joint commission wants these behaviors addressed.

*** Yes! This. Well said.

This is a situation in which you need to make use of your charge nurses or your co-workers.

If you cannot get an IV restarted right away, ask your charge nurse to help you.

I can't really condemn the doctor though, her commentary was centered about a legitimate concern for the patient.

We were all new once and do remember how fragile confidence is; I hope you feel better soon.

It's not about what happened with the IV. It's about how rude and unprofessional the Dr was.

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
It's not about what happened with the IV. It's about how rude and unprofessional the Dr was.

No, it's about both. Yes, the doctor was unprofessional, but I think you do a great disservice to this new nurse if you just say "take 6 hours if you want for the IV, that doctor was just mean!"

No, it's about both. Yes, the doctor was unprofessional, but I think you do a great disservice to this new nurse if you just say "take 6 hours if you want for the IV, that doctor was just mean!"

The nurse realized she did wrong. She wasnt complaining about her mistake nor was she posting on AN to have it rubbed in even further.

She was posting about how nasty the doc was. Which under almost any circumstance is uncalled for.

I hope that I am not only speaking for myself that it is shameful to "reprimand" me for noting that a critical potassium level was addressed so casually and then the blame was placed on the doctor for being so "awful". I know that when I am a nurse I will make mistakes but I will learn from them not make excuses for them. It is sad to see the prioritization that so many nurses on this sight have. Also I show respect to everyone around me but my point was that if you don't think you did something wrong as a nurse go back to those fundamental skills and knowledge that you learned as a student and ask yourself should you have done something differently.

I can't speak for other posters, but I don't feel as if I reprimanded you. AN is great for nursing students. You can learn from other peoples mistakes. I am just trying to give you a glimpse of your future as a new nurse.

Things don't happen on a busy floor the way they do in NCLEX questions and clinical. While you plan on going in to start IV, you may have to respond to a confused patient falling, or just climbing out of bed. Then a doc or pharmacy calls. Then you are interrupted by a family member. Next, it is an hour later and you realize you never got to the new IV. And that is assuming that there is no other critical labs or rapid response.

I was straight A book smart nurse, who could recite textbook word for word. I stormed into my first job ready to impress. I got my butt kicked. It happens to everyone. You pray you don't hurt anyone and you learn from your mistakes.

Specializes in Medical Surgical.

I do also pray that I don't hurt anyone and I know I am only tasting reality right now. But I hear stories of how a patient died and the death was preventable. It sucks getting spoken to like you are an idiot when you know you aren't and I am truly sorry to any nurse who has to listen to a doctor scream and yell at them. That kind of behavior is inexcusable.. I am not trying to make her feel worse because I am a student saying this. I just see the OP as complaining about a doctor and not owning up to his or her own mistakes. The only way to improve is to learn from those mistakes and I just want to emphasize that. Hypokalemia is a serious condition that I feel should be addressed as soon as possible.. It seems as if the OP put it on the backburner and her mistake came back and hit her but only in the manner that the doctor yelled at her.. Luckily no one was hurt. So if anyone wants to call me disrespectful or whatever go ahead I am an adult and it doesn't phase me because I know I am respectful. And I feel I am responsible for my patients at the hospital even though I am a student because I am taught the S/S of pathophysiology so when it takes place before my eyes I can recognize whats happening. So anyways I am not intending to challenge the knowledge and experience of anyone who is an RN, I am just saying the OP didn't prioritize but the patient is safe and unharmed so just take it as a life lesson and move on.

Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

Hey op,

I'm sorry that happened, but I'm going to be brutally honest: you should've known better. I'm not even finished with nursing school, but in my first year, they emphasized that potassium value and burned it in our memory. As someone who wounded in the hospital after a suicide attempt with hair falling out and severe hypokalemia, I can attest just how important it is to be on top of those lab values and make it a top priority (three hours...what?).

No, I don't think the doctor handled the situation professionally, but I can't say I blame the MD.

Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

Please don't tell me you are comparing rape to this situation. Please. ...

I am shocked and disgusted at some of the responses here. Obviously the OP made some mistakes, however IT DOESN"T MATTER! what she did it is ALWAYS wrong for a physician to yell at nurses. The OP is not a small child, the physician is NOT her mommy.

Of course the physician had reason to be concerned about the care provided by the RN. She should have immediatly brough the matter to the attention of the RNs supervisor and allowed the supervisor to deal with it.

Some of you are ready to excuse the physicians inappropiate behavior. Reminds me of the bad old days when a rape victims were told it was their fault cause of what there were wearing.

The physician is creating a hostile work enviroment. She need to be delt with by her employer immediatly. Almost as shocking to me is that none of the OP's coworkers stepped in at the moment. Are they all spineless cowards or is this work enviroment so severly dysfuctional that all the nurses are cowed and fearful?

Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.
Dear first semester nursing student,

...before anything else?

I'm glad you've learned a few things, but I'm not sure you're in a position to scold the nurses who've graduated ahead of you. Some humility might be in order.

Eh...I'm still in nursing school but suffered from hypokalemia after a bout with anorexia. So I would say that I'm very knowledgeable about this sort of thing.

Jbumgardner4,

Yes. I agree with you that it was not appropriate to treat OP that way. Unfortunately, nurses are sometimes their own worst enemy. We outnumber doctors and management, yet we frequently quibble amongst ourselves. If nurses ever truly united, we would rule the healthcare industry.

The nurses on this site can be a tough crowd. You are brave to express your opinion and defend it. You will be an asset to the profession.

The nurse realized she did wrong. She wasnt complaining about her mistake nor was she posting on AN to have it rubbed in even further.

She was posting about how nasty the doc was. Which under almost any circumstance is uncalled for.

What gets me is that this seems to be all about the poor nurse whose feelings were hurt because the big bad MD called her out for a mistake she made in front of others. What about the poor patient whose life was at stake?

She came here and posted about her mistake trying to gain sympathy from the nurses here because it's well known that there is an age old conflict between doctors and nurses-good nurse-bad doctor. Maybe she should have just swallowed her pride and learned from her mistake.

+ Add a Comment