A doctor asking you to give him a cup of coffee!!

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi Everyone:

I have a silly question to ask....

We have a doc who is handicap and walks with crutches. I dont have a clue what happened to him. He is always rude and mean with his patients and nursing staff....anyhow yesterday I was working and I was taking care of one of his patients. He asked me if we made any coffee and I told him, we may have some old coffee. Then I got busy with my patients and when I came back to the nurses station he asked me where was his coffee??

I did not know how to respond....I did not feel comfortable with giving him coffee because he has this "thing" about taking nurses out!! He thinks all female nurses are after him...!! Then again I felt bad becuase he is a handicap and perhaps I should have helped him:(....what would you have done in my situation??

Thanks

Specializes in OB/peds (after gen surgery for 3 yrs).

It's has to be 25+ years ago, a doctor at the nurses' station told me to get him coffee. I simply said "no" and turned to leave. (I didn't think I was being rude, but I didn't think he was serious.) He started screaming at me, up one side and down another. Several other docs came to my rescue and told him to cut it out. I was the "new guy" and he apparently knew nurses who would get his coffee. I've never had any such request again. I was about 22 years old, probably, and shaking in my clinics (or whatever those shoes were) afterward for a while.

Specializes in OB.

Again, if it were something he could obviously get himself, such as a chart or paperwork, I'd not get it - simply point it out, but I challenge some of you to try it sometime - get out a pair of crutches, try going to the pot, pouring a cup of coffee and now figure out how to get it back to the desk. Good luck!

To me this is simply being considerate of someone's disability - not pandering. Of course, nothing wrong with asking him if he needs extra sugar in it to sweeten up his attitude!

Specializes in Med/Surg, Psych..
If he walks on crutches, has someone considered that he may not be able to get the coffee and bring the cup back to his table, if he needs both hands to walk?

If that is the case, I would have got him the coffee.

Yes he does use both hands to use the crutches.....but I still dont feel comfortable because of his behavior, attitude and past history....none of the other docs ever made any request to me like that. Thats why I was surprised and did not know how to react....:(

Thank you all for making me feel a bit better.:)

Specializes in Med/Surg, Psych..

:lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2: thats a great one Leslie!!!!

i save bottom-of-the-pot-month-old-coffee, for occasions like this...

leslie

if I was in your situation I would have probably thought he was joking around and trying to hit on me.

Specializes in Geri.

Is his name Dr. House? coz i don't think that guy is a real doctor.:angryfire

If he had asked me where his coffee was, I'd have played stupid and asked "I don't know - where did you leave it?" then walked off.

Being handicapped IS no excuse for being obnoxious.

Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Sometimes you have to choose your battles.

I remember one guy many years back who was sweet as candy ALL the time, always offering to bring us a cup back from the coffee pot or fridge in the small kitchen (behind a closed door accessed from the hall not the station).

THEN someone found him in there partaking of a line his nasal "candy" in OUR kitchen! No wonder he was so "nice". He was dismissed soon after.

I believe your doc might

1. be a grumpy guy normally.

2. is a grumpy guy who happens to use crutches

3. a grumpy guy in pain who uses crutches. or just a pain in the backside guy who has gotten away with it for many years and takes it for granted.

This isn't a battle worth fighting. "I'm sorry I don't know if there is any coffee." would be my best, and then excuse me I have to: run, go to the loo, give my patient pain med, whatever.

OR go get the coffee and be done with it.

Your ulcer will thank you for not irritating it over something so trivial.

Maybe we have worked with the same doctor???

I also worked with a handi-capped doctor on crutches- he was very mean to nurses and to pts, as well. He asked me to get him a cup of coffee, once. I just acted like I didn't hear him, and kept on working.

A few weeks later when he learned that several of his pts has switched their care over to another doctor, he picked up a stack of charts, threw them on the floor and left. Everyone is glad he is now retired.

If he walks on crutches, has someone considered that he may not be able to get the coffee and bring the cup back to his table, if he needs both hands to walk?

If that is the case, I would have got him the coffee.

Not with his sense of entitlement and rudeness.

Having had some personal experience with walking on crutches while temporarily disabled due to broken bones, I know how pain and helplessness can cause a sour outlook. As others have already pointed out, it is impossible to carry a cup of coffee without spilling it while walking on crutches. Instead of responding to this "rude doctor" with rudeness of my own, I would cheerfully get the coffee for him, and be thankful that I can walk without crutches!

There will always be doctors who seem to delight in being unreasonable, but they are the ones who need a kind word and a smile more than anyone else. One of my favorite mentors taught me to "Kill them with kindness because it confuses the hell out of them!" Not only did it work, but those very doctors were the ones who would lean over backwards if necessary to do favors for her when she needed help.

Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

Well I'm stuck in the hole- the littlebitty ICU with a nurse station that two people can barely fit in and yes, there's a kitchen in there too. We don't make that industrial crap at night. We bring our own and it's good; people notice 'cause it makes the whole unit smell good. We joke sometimes that when the patients get well enough to start asking for the coffee they are well enough to be out of ICU!

So anyone. I mean anyone. Patient, doctor, family member, whatever. Must be nice for the coffee. I didn't go down to the store and buy it for mean people! Neither did my coworkers! One of the nicer docs usually won't take any of it 'cause he knows we bought it, even if we offer him a cup. He can learn manners, so I guess the rest of them can too.

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