Favourite Doctor Moments

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Sometimes the doctors I work with make me want to cry because they are so damn good. I know we all have our fair share of complaints but what are some of my fellow AN favourite doctor moments?

Here's a couple of mine:

Pt. behaving like a child (20yrs old), performing for attention, mum at bedside. All investigations pending, develops chest pain when told it might be a few more hours before she sees a doctor. Intern checks results, assesses pt., gives her an antacid. Pts' mother- but what about this terrible pain. "Well, all your tests are fine I'm afraid you'll just have to suck it up", while giving her a discharge letter.

One of our very senior consultants being verbally threatened with litigation because he said the patient could go home (she had the flu). "I WANT YOUR NAME" me hiding round the corner saying to myself "please spell it, please spell it.." our consultant "It's (spells it) " then calls security.

Deliver a pt. to pre-op and she decided to flick into rapid AF. I have ALS so ask the nurses for some amiodarone an ECG machine, and a doctor. Anaesthetist walks out and says "just do whatever she says" and walks away.

My all time favourite, consultant and intern chatting to a patient. The patient asks for a cup of tea. Intern- "Oh, one of the nurses can get that for you", Consultant- "Who is getting the cup of tea?" looking very intently at the intern, Intern- "Um, I am?" Consultant- "Bingo".

I am sure I will remember some more but outdo me.

Specializes in Oncology.

Patient was demanding Ativan. Doctor came in and ordered a reasonable dose. The patient asked how much she was getting. Doctor: "2mg PO."

Patient: "That wouldn't be enough to help my dog!"

Doctor: "Wow, even your pets require sedatives?"

Walking in on one of our head doctors laying on the floor under the patient's bed, "He dropped his cell phone, I'm looking for it."

The doctor who came in in the middle of the night and spent 3 hours talking to a newly diagnosed leukemic about the disease, treatment, and prognosis.

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Hooray, another feel-good thread!

I worked with an attending surgeon who would ask his patients if there were any nurses they felt were giving exceptional care (and also any concerns). He would then then find those nurses and thank them.

One of my favorite surgeons in his preop eval would do SUCH a thorough interview that he would sometimes dedicate pages to a psychosocial assessment including political beliefs, family upbringing, past careers, aspirations, world view, etc!! He truly cared about each of his patients as individuals which was important I suppose for going into surgery bc he performed high risk procedures. He was also the only surgeon I've known who spent as much time talking to the patients post-op as he did preop.

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Wow. I haven't had an experience with a MD who is as wonderful as those in your stories.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

A trauma surgeon who I called in on X-mas day to look at an abdominal wound that I thought looked hinkey. He got there and said it was fine. I started to apologize all over myself and he stopped me. Said he loves to come in and check when we are worried and to always call no matter what. I love that guy.

Had an ER pt who came in with very high BP. We tried like six drugs and nothing brought it down. ER doc comes over by me, puts his feet up on my desk and says "I don't know what to do with this guy. I've tried everything." I said how bout nitro. We tried it and it worked. I love that doc too.

One night when I worked med surg a doc called and said, "How's my guy in room 3?". I started giving him labs and professional crap and he stopped me. "No, I mean really how's he feeling. Is he doing better?" So I had a nice personal talk with him about the patient and his progress. The doc said he already knew the labs and stuff. I said how. He said he could see them from his Batcave. (He had online access to hospital labs and such). I love that doc so much I made him my personal physician and call him Batman.

Had one ER doc say something to a combative pt that I can't repeat but the pt behaved perfectly after that chat. Love that doc.

Cool girl trauma surgeon who would use Rotten.com pics during her trauma seminars.

ER doc (head doc) who called nasty ICU nurse who was making fun of ER nurses and chewed her a new one.

I have been very lucky during my 10 year career and worked with many awesome docs.

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When I was a brand new nurse, I was surprised to have one doc call me just to check on his patient and how he was progressing (I work nights). He called once near the beginning of the shift and again early the next morning...each time thanking me for updating him. Wow!

One particular surgeon is a crotchety li'l bugger and likes to be sarcastic with the nurses, but I like him; he is good at what he does. I had one of his patients, and I work in ICU; per our protocol, nurses can order certain labs on our own. I noticed a trend and ran a lab; sure enough, it came back as a critical value. He ribbed me the next morning, saying, "Apparently THE NURSES have a problem with your lab values!" (jokingly)...but he adjusted the patient's meds (after quizzing me on the patho of why the lab was abnormal and what needed to be done to fix it). When I answered correctly, he said, "Good job." The whole thing made me feel good. :nurse:

Also love another surgeon...extremely personable and likes to teach. He is so approachable that you feel OK calling him just to update him or get his take on something...it's not limited to if you just "need" something. I called him this morning to let him know about a few changes, and he thanked me.

Hmmm..."thank you." How novel. :D

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There is one I can think of right now.

When his pts talk about their children, this doctor would pull out his iPhone and shows them his children pictures. So cute. He loves to teach too, is easy to talk to, calls our student volunteers his "children" and tells them to ask him smart medical questions, calls anyone who is younger (including me) "a grasshopper", and plays tricks on people!!!

AND he is a good doctor, always tell residents to treat the pts and not the labs. I couldn't believe this type of doctor existed.

Ohh how much I love this doctor!!!

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Specializes in Ortho Med\Surg.

I haven't been a nurse for long, but I already know which docs I can joke with and which ones I can't. I don't have a work-related story, but a personal one. We were living in the South, thousands of miles from my family and I was sooo sick. The doctor I was going to on the Air Force base was okay but not fantastic in my opinion. One weekend (I'd been sick for months at this point) was really awful. I had seen my doc on Friday and on Saturday night he called our home just to check on me. We spent 10 minutes on the phone -- after that, I held him in the highest regard. The following week at my appointment, he told me that he had been jogging and had had an epiphany about my case, and he was right! Within a week I was feeling better. I cried the day he was deployed to Japan and have never found a more involved doc. Sure do miss that guy!

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Specializes in Emergency, Haematology/Oncology.
I haven't been a nurse for long, but I already know which docs I can joke with and which ones I can't. I don't have a work-related story, but a personal one. We were living in the South, thousands of miles from my family and I was sooo sick. The doctor I was going to on the Air Force base was okay but not fantastic in my opinion. One weekend (I'd been sick for months at this point) was really awful. I had seen my doc on Friday and on Saturday night he called our home just to check on me. We spent 10 minutes on the phone -- after that, I held him in the highest regard. The following week at my appointment, he told me that he had been jogging and had had an epiphany about my case, and he was right! Within a week I was feeling better. I cried the day he was deployed to Japan and have never found a more involved doc. Sure do miss that guy!

I love docs that take care of their nurses- especially the really smart ones whom you can truly ask for advice and help. The person who prompted me to start this thread is a doctor who I consider to be above the "gold standard". He is quite likely the smartest person I have ever met, and backs up this intellect with being a truly caring person.

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Specializes in Emergency, Haematology/Oncology.

I just wanted to tell you all about my favourite doctor in my 15 odd years of nursing. I can't tell him because he would truly be embarrassed and thinks nothing of the things he does- he is one of our most senior ED physicians. My Aunty who is intellectually impaired, has a large (suspected) meningioma in her frontal lobe- she needed an MRI but of course, under general anaesthetic which is not simple to organise given the way our hospital system is designed, she simply gets too frightened. The earliest appointment available was six months away and let me tell you, this sucker is big and affecting her behaviour memory and cognition. After wracking my brain to figure out a way to organise this for her I thought I would have a talk with this doctor and see what he thought. He talked with me on the phone, asked me to bring in her imaging and gave me his mobile phone number. She had her MRI four weeks later- somehow, he managed to arrange an admission for her under a completely different team (neurosurg) without them even knowing about it. I called him when we had the results and he was actually out of town heading up a medical disaster effort after a flood but made arrangements to see me as soon as he got back and still managed to find out everything while in a disaster zone (who does that?). He took me for coffee, spent 2 hours counselling me, and answering my questions about surgery etc. and so on and continues to follow up behind the scenes. I held this person in very high regard already, I didn't think it was possible for my expectations to be so utterly exceeded. One of the things I love about my work is the opportunity to work with people like this.

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I love the stories posted so far! I hope when (not if) I start working, I'll get to meet awesome doctors like the ones mentioned in these posts. :)

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I worked in a high tech clinic for many years. We got to know many of our patients well as they were repeats for tons of years. If we ever had an abusive, nasty patient giving trouble to myself or the other nurse (there were just two of us nurses and two docs) one doc would drop by the abusive patients room and tell the patient "if you continue to treat my nurse so poorly, this will be your last time in our clinic". It worked every time.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Had a doc tell an unreasonable person getting their lip lac sewn "you're acting a lot more stupid than just alcohol, what else are you on?'

One doc was teaching in ACLS, told the class if I called him into a room, he'd run because I never call unless it really is serious. Made me feel good.

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