How do you deal with Doctors that insult nurses?

[relusanmi]

I am a new nursing grad working in an acute care setting. My job specifications require me to call MD's at frequent intervals for lab results and change in health status of my patients. I have since found out that most of the MD's that are attached to the facility where I work get upset whenever you contact them about their patients, leading them to be rude in the way they address nurses.

There's is this particular one that all nurses in the facility dread to call even in critical situations. I have been seriously bothered by this situation that I began to wonder if I am in a wrong profession. I am not used to being disrespected and I think I may snap one of these days.

I just need your candid advice on how to deal with situations like this.

[djh123]

I agree with a lot of the advice in the responses. I just want to add a funny little thing from yesterday at work. A young intern was looking at a patient's chart and asked me when they'd last had labs. I quite happily said "Well, if you look under the LABS tab in their chart..." :^)

[Buyer beware, BSN]

Now for the good news! You are in the right profession.

Now the bad news! If you are not used to being disrespected, you are in the wrong profession. But I will say this: the second you don't call them about something that's irregular and something happens to the patient, you will be thrown under the bus by the doctor and the hospital in a New York minute.

So when they act-out, throw a tantrum and call you stupid, just hold the phone to Mother Earth and document they've "done been notified." And you might want to make a copy at that because memory is often times a fleeting he said, she said quandry in the eyes of any discerning third party ie., a jury.

[Concerto_in_C, BSN, RN]

Never encountered a doctor who insulted me personally in 8 years of practice. Met 1 doctor who tried to intimidate me and I thought he was rude but he wasn't insulting. 9 out of 10 times nurses and nurse aides are the abusers in the workplace.

I don't know why my experience has been different. "Abuse by doctors" is a mandatory part of nursing education but never experienced it in practice, even when I obviously screwed up or acted incompetently.

If anything, the doctors were the ones showing class, professionalism and good manners when other employees wouldn't.

[amzyRN]

Write the incident up after to speaking with the physician privately about the behavior. One rude incident, I let that go. If it continues, I file an incident report. If that is ignored, go to HR. MD's are supposed to be colleagues and rude abusive behavior creates a hostile work environment and that becomes problematic over time. I have zero tolerance for that anymore.

However, before doing all that I will speak with the MD privately about it. I give the person an opportunity to change the behavior.

I'm fortunate to work at facilities who don't tolerate this.

[RegularNurse]

Most abuse in healthcare is nurse on nurse.

Having said that, you determine how people treat you. The person on the other end of the phone is getting compensated to pick up. Don't lose sight of that, it is their job to answer the phone and figure stuff out, just like it is your job to call them.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

"Work with me, Doc, Let's stay out of Court".

I guess when you're new, it's natural to be scared and take to heart all the trash your coworkers tell you. But try to be calm, be prepared as others here have advised, and just do your job.

I've rarely had to deal with this and never more than once with any particular doctor because I let them know, nicely but firmly, that we are a team trying to care for our patient.

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

I agree with all of the above. As long as you are professional in your demeanor, informed and efficient in what you report with the pertinent information they need to answer your question, or give you subsequent orders, then you are doing your job.

I have said the following to a couple MDs in the past, but mind you...I had worked with them for quite awhile and we had rapport...

"Breath. I'm on your side". Pretty sure they are often reacting under pressure, exhaustion, and sometimes simply have immature interpersonal communication skills. As one poster said, they are human too.

What bothers me regarding this subject is that as a nurse, if we were to EVER speak rudely or in an outburst to a physician, our "you know what's" would be on the line.

Unfortunately as far as this type of thing is concerned, we are working under a hierarchy and they bring in the money. Doesn't excuse it, but they operate (no pun intended) under different expectations. Having said that, I have seen a world of change over the years. Back in the day, we used to be expected to give up our seats when a physician entered the nurses' station and fetch charts for them, etc....Glad those days are over. Would be nice to see more respect, though.

Anyone interested in a "pet peeve regarding doctors" thread?

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

Never encountered a doctor who insulted me personally in 8 years of practice. Met 1 doctor who tried to intimidate me and I thought he was rude but he wasn't insulting. 9 out of 10 times nurses and nurse aides are the abusers in the workplace.

I don't know why my experience has been different. "Abuse by doctors" is a mandatory part of nursing education but never experienced it in practice, even when I obviously screwed up or acted incompetently.

If anything, the doctors were the ones showing class, professionalism and good manners when other employees wouldn't.

That's good. I hope it never does happen to you.

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

"Work with me, Doc, Let's stay out of Court".

I guess when you're new, it's natural to be scared and take to heart all the trash your coworkers tell you. But try to be calm, be prepared as others here have advised, and just do your job.

I've rarely had to deal with this and never more than once with any particular doctor because I let them know, nicely but firmly, that we are a team trying to care for our patient.

LOVE this! Excellent. To the point.

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

Anyone interested in a "pet peeve regarding doctors" thread?

While I do have pet peeves, it is usually from a particular person rather than providers (MD, PA, NP) in general.

I would rather see a thread on doctors who have gone above and beyond. That way instead of encouraging divisiveness between doctors and nurses, we would be encouraging professional respect.

Edited to add: ps. If you look at the md version of allnurses, there are hugely more providers standing up for us than bashing us, and the rude ones are almost always students or otherwise insecure about themselves.

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

I agree with other posters who recommend taking a deep breath and thinking about the context and severity of this behavior before deciding how you will react to it and if you report it. I work per-diem in a psychiatric ED where there is only 1 physician in the entire building on nights and when nurses from the inpatient units call to speak with the doctor I have to triage the calls and determine if it's a routine, urgent, or emergent issue. From one nurse to another my mind is blown when a nurse will call with an issue and not have any supporting information or any idea of what they expect to be done about it. Case in point, here are a few of the gems that I have had to hear over the past few years...

"I am calling because the patient's blood pressure is XXX/XX." -- The nurse had not obtained a manual blood pressure and didn't have the last full set of vital signs. or even a few of the most recent blood pressures. The nurse didn't know the patient's past medical history or if they had a recent trend of similar elevated blood pressure readings.

"I'm calling to get an order for cough drops" -- This STAT order of course has to occur at 3 AM when the patient has supposedly had a sore throat or persistent cough "all day long" and just thought it would be a good idea to say something about it to the nurse at 3 AM.

"Can I get an order for something to help my patient sleep? He has insomnia all the time and can't get to sleep without meds." -- This is always for the patient who has no medication for insomnia and the patient never asked for anything while the attending was on campus. The best part is that apparently "everyone" is aware of this issue but no one "got around to asking the attending during the day".

I'm not saying that this kind of stuff is necessarily all the nurse's fault or things that can be fully avoided but the takeaway message is that when you call a provider to report an issue or request an intervention make sure that you know about the patient and have an idea in mind for what needs to be done.

!Chris

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

While I do have pet peeves, it is usually from a particular person rather than providers (MD, PA, NP) in general.

I would rather see a thread on doctors who have gone above and beyond. That way instead of encouraging divisiveness between doctors and nurses, we would be encouraging professional respect.

Edited to add: ps. If you look at the md version of allnurses, there are hugely more providers standing up for us than bashing us, and the rude ones are almost always students or otherwise insecure about themselves.

Oh yes, please do not misunderstand. I do not want to bash or encourage divisiveness....It was meant to discuss and vent possibly, but more about what we commonly see and how to handle the situation. I agree, that most times the "problem" lies with an individual, but there really are some things that commonly happen and I was hoping to find ways to improve our interactions. I didn't explain well enough the intent. Having been a nurse for a gazillion years, I have seen awesome changes in our relationships and practice with one another...partly things needing change from nurses as well as physicians.

I would love the "gone above and beyond" topic, also. Have several of those stories.