And then the MD said.....

Nurses Relations

Published

"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.

My doctor will call me at home if I've been having issues, he called me once after I went to urgent care to make sure I was fine. There are many good ones still around today. My sons pedi is the same way, he always calls me back personally if I have a concern.

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I actually had a doctor walk a patient to the bathroom, wait for her to finish and walk her back to bed. This was while he was making morning rounds. I acted shocked and he was shocked that I was shocked. Yes, he was a young doctor.

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I'm just a student and so haven't had much contact with doctors, but I do recall the time a resident introduced himself to me, shook my hand, and then used my name when addressing me some time later. I got a little teary! Typically docs have had their faces buried in the chart at the nursing station and have barked out to no one in particular a question about a patient and that's how communication happens.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I do. If you want someone to help/appreciate you more often, you need to appreciate them when they do it.

Yes, and Lord knows we have enough "awful doctor" stories on this forum. I'd imagine they have a list of things nurses could do or did do to demonstrate awareness and generosity regarding their jobs.

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a dr cleaning up a poopy diaper on a baby is not impressive to me..... nurses don't do that its left to the parents.

Having worked with babies in critical care for four years I beg to differ. If the parents are around sure we encourage them to change the diapers and for some of the sicker infants it might be the only interaction the parents get all day but for the other 75% of patients whose parents are not around 24/7 the nurse change a lot of poopy diapers

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I'm just a student and so haven't had much contact with doctors, but I do recall the time a resident introduced himself to me, shook my hand, and then used my name when addressing me some time later. I got a little teary! Typically docs have had their faces buried in the chart at the nursing station and have barked out to no one in particular a question about a patient and that's how communication happens.

Umm...it's a physician, not God. Is this really how nurses see physicians?? Oh em gee...he's just another person, and certaintly no more important than you or I!

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Neuro/Oncology floor nursing..

I was about a month out of brain surgery when I started feeling really icky and having a lot of pain that wasn't being controlled by my meds like it usually was. My surgeon told me to get to the nearest ER with the understanding that if anything serious was going on they would transfer me to the hospital I had my surgery at(same hospital I work in which would have taken me 45 minutes to get to). So my mom took me to the local ER which was like grand central station at rush hour. CT was all ready for me, they just needed a transporter for me and no one was around. So the attending took wheeled me down there himself(one person was in having a CT scan so I had to wait in the hall for them to finish). The doctor waited with me in the hall, wheeled me in and helped me onto the scanner himself(there were two techs who were perfectly willing and able to help me, he waved them off). When I was finished the same doctor back in, helped me onto the stretcher and wheeled me back to the ER(he waited the whole time..granted it was only a few minutes, but the transporters don't even do that). I told him he didn't have to wait for me that I wouldn't have minded waiting in the hallway for a transporter to come bring me back. To which he replied "I know, but we're really busy tonight and I wouldn't want you waiting down here for 25 minutes when I know you are in pain. Keep in mind he didn't know me from Adam..had no idea I was a nurse..but he was treating me like the head of the entire hospital. I wasn't back even five minutes when he came back and pushed some dilaudid and valium himself to keep me comfortable while they were waiting for CT scan...I couldn't thank him enough..he stated not only were they busy but they were short a nurse and it could've taken a while to get my meds(which I didn't have to ask for). I never forgot him..he was definitely a doctor not for the money but because he truly wants to ease people's suffering. I wrote to the head of he hospital about the doctor to make sure he got praise because the hospital really is lucky to have him on board.

At my hospital the doctors help out all the time(with the exception of a few "bad apples"). I few times off the top of the head I can remember are one time we were swamped(the whole 1200 bed hospital was full so we had non-neuro patients filling our beds...our whole unit was completely full(which is rare we usually have a few open beds). The chair of neurosurgery was on the floor checking on a couple of our patients. I was taking care of his patients roommate(a general medicine admin) and his patient's bag of NS was empty and needed another. I planned on getting to it as soon as I was finished giving the roommate his meds, when the neurosurgeon left and came back with a bag of 250ml of NS. I figured he got it for me to hook up(which was nice enough), but he hooked it up himself, left, came back again and flushed his patient's line. I thanked him profusely to which he replied "we won't function as a hospital if we don't work together." And this was the department chair of neurosurgery if he says jump even the other attendings ask "how high?" I've seen residents and attendings empty/change foley bags and bed pans, change dressings, even empty the trash. It's these little things the really make my job easier.

Another time that really sticks out is that we had a patient on a one to one and poor girl had been there for literally 10 hours(she had bathroom breaks when I was in taking care of the patient) but that is it...I told her all she had to do was call me if she needed a break but she didn't want to bother me, so she just waited for someone to come in the room so she could duck out for a two minute bathroom break. She needed to go home, she should have two hours before but was gracious enough to stay(her replacement called in to say he would be 2 hours late but still didn't show up). So I went to find the charge nurse to let her know the situation and the house doctor happened to be standing there, looked up at us, walked to the patients room and send the PCA home(patient care associate). I asked her who was in there with the patient to which she replied the Doctor! I walked in and sure enough there he was sitting with the patient. I told him that I would sit with the patient as long as my boss cleared it..he waved me away and told me not to worry about it. He wound up staying 45 minutes for the replacement to come in. That was really great of him...of course no good deed goes unpunished because the doctor had to stay 3 hours later catching up on the work he missed out on.

A group of medical students came through our unit and I heard one of the doctors say "you don't EVER want to tick off the nurses...they are the spine of the hospital...if you remember one thing let it be that!"

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Specializes in ED.

I think Emergency docs are a special breed. The docs, residents, med students, nurses and techs work as a team. It is not unusual to see a doc help lift a patient, put someone on the bedpan, put in a foley, start an IV or even get a patient a drink of water, especially if he/she sees the nurse is really busy. The same goes with the PAs and NPS that work in the department. It is a matter of mutual respect and consideration. We work as a team and the department moves much smoother that way. Also, at my hospital, all med students have to do a couple with a nurse before working with the docs. This gives them a much better appreciation of what we have to do. We are all there to give the best possible care to the patient. The best way to do that is teamwork.

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Specializes in NICU.

I've worked with innumerable doctors during my 35 year nursing career, but there are two that stand out. Dr. C was a resident 34 years ago, when I had first started my job. I worked in the Isolation/Medical-Surgical floor of a 97 bed pediatric hospital. We cared for patients of all ages & acuities, b/c the hospital's PICU had just opened, and was currently taking patients up to the age of 3 years only.

We had an 8 year old boy with Reyes' Syndrome in a private room. Intubated, chest tubes, multiple IV drips, critically ill. Suddenly all the alarms went off in his room. The electrical system was not equipped to deal with the # of IV pumps, vent, chest tubes, etc. and had short circuited. All the nurses went running to the room; started bagging the patient, called a code, called the Supervisor & maintenance STAT etc. During the time that the incident occurred, the residents, med. students, and attending MD happened to be on rounds. Out of approximately 10 doctors standing outside the door, Dr. C was the ONLY ONE who responded to the crisis; going into the room, asking what needed to be done, assisting the staff in stabilizing the patient, etc. I will never forget him.

The second doctor was a surgical resident, Dr. P. a couple of years later. I had transferred to the PICU. We now took patients of all ages, including burn victims, because the hospital had not yet opened its Burn Unit. Surgical residents had their own call room, & sometimes even went home, if they lived within 10 minutes of the hospital. We had admitted a new burn patient. Dr. P. was so concerned about her that he literally did not leave her side for days. He set up a chair bed at one end of the room and slept there, so he would be at hand if we needed him.

He assisted us with all her care. If he had to leave the PICU to attend to other patients on the floor, he returned as soon as he could to be with her. I still have a picture of him that I took, where he was curled up in the chair bed, asleep.

Both doctors turned into outstanding attendings when they completed their training and started private practice.

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Specializes in pediatrics; PICU; NICU.

Several years ago, I was in the hospital & was talking to my nurse (a fairly new grad) about how much I love my PCP. She told me she's seen him stop doing rounds to feed elderly patients who need help. I knew this doctor when he was a med student in 1980 & he's always been that way. I don't look forward to the time when he decides to retire.

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Worked with a doc once, and I was trying to get patient's home medications/pharmacy situated. I had to call several pharmacys to get different meds at different places (Long story why). Anyway, Normally the docs leave that up to us...if there is a situation with the pharmacy they sent the medications to, we have to fax it to a pharmacy that can do it, because after they write their discharge orders "it's no longer their problem" (ugh). This is most commonly a problem on weekends with pharmacys that are not open. So it is UN HEARD OF for a doctor to actually take the initiative to help with this. It's frustrating cause we always remind them they need to make sure the pharmacy is even open.

It was 2 hours after he wrote the discharge orders and he was like "Why isn't ____ gone yet? His ride has been here. Is there a hold up?" I told him my problem with the pharmacy, which was basically a nightmare. He was like "I'll tell you what. You call pharmacy X and i'll call pharmacy Y. I'll do it at the desk so if there are any issues they can speak to me." and this doctor that said this to me is AWFUL to work with. he has sent many new nurses in tears, he is incredibly degrading. It literally dropped me to my knees when he said that. I honestly thought he was going to ream me out for not getting the patient out the door in a timely matter. After he left, a coupe nurses came up to me and were like "Did that just really happen??"....oh, it happened!!!! ;). I'm thinking he is the type of guy you need to earn your respect. He doesn't like new nurses and doesn't trust new nurses with his patients. I've come to the conclusion when you get called your name, rather than "nurse" you have earned his trust. He now calls me Caitlyn after that day. love it.

On the flip side, I had a doctor call my phone "Can you get a blood pressure in room _____ I'm going to start diltiazem and want a fresh set of vitals"I walk in the room, not even knowing the doctor was on my floor. I thought he just wanted a fresh set, so I go to the room. I see the doctor standing in the patient's room, resting his arm on the blood pressure machine. "Um....??? Are you serious?"

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Specializes in neuro/ortho med surge 4.

I had a neurologist last week physically scoop up a little old lady in his arms to reposition in her on the bed. So nice to see and few and far between.

I also seen a doctor cut up a patients dinner and help feed them.

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