Any Good Doctor Stories?

[RNinICU]

There are a lot of posts about the things MDs do that anger and frustrate us, but does anyone have any stories about some of the nice things they sometimes do. Our cardiac surgeons have a Christmas party and a Labor Day picnic for all the staff every year. Those that can't attend because they have to work recieve a gift. One of our pulmonologists brings us pizza or other takeout several times a month.

I worked on a medsurg floor for several days last week because our census was down, and had a patient who was recovering from abdominal surgery. His surgeon was out to someone else the first day I was there, and the patient complained to the surgeon that the nurses made him wash himself. The covering surgeon told him, the nurses are here to help you get better, not to coddle you. You didn't have surgery on your arms. Do it yourself. The next day the patient's surgeon was back, and he tried the same complaint about the nurses not washing him His surgeon told him he expected the nurses to be maids, and they are not, they are professionals. He told him the only way he was going to get better is to take care of himself. Both of these surgeons have supported the staff many times in the past when there have been problems with patients or when administration has been unreasonable. I have also had many docs tell me that they appreciate the care I give my patients. Anyone else want to share some "good" doctor stories?

[deespoohbear]

We are lucky also to have several wonderful docs at our small facility. A few of the examples I can remember:

When my MIL was dying in March, her family doctor (a relatively young doc) came into the room that last morning. He did not know how bad she was because the nurses had been calling the internist all noc for stuff. Anyway, the doctor came in to see my MIL. He talked to all of us and talked to my MIL. She could still respond with a hand squeeze. He held her hand and reached over and kissed her on the forehead. He knew it would be the last time he ever saw her. My MIL squeezed his hand in reply. I don't know who was more choked up, my FIL or the doctor.

Another day we had a pair of young men in our unit. They had been involved in a serious MVA. The one young man had bad road rash on his head that required an extensive drsg change. The best way to describe this man's language is "colorful." Just his everyday conversation was peppered with words not fit for a sailor. Plus, he would make sexual comments to the nurses. One day, one of the family docs heard this guy making crude remarks to one of our pregnant nurses. The doctor walked into the room, and promptly told him that he expected him to treat the staff with some respect. He really chewed into him! :D

This is a great thread!!

[skwirm]

Its awesome to hear some positive doctor stories. Since I am still in nursing school and we discuss a lot of "power" issues, doctors always end up getting the bad rap. I know there are some idiots and jerks out there, but its nice to know that there are a lot of excellent Md's too. Nice stories all.

[LilgirlRN, ADN, RN]

I work with a great group of ER physicians. To me, the greatest compliment a doctor can give you is his/her trust in your ability and your opinion. There are 2 docs in praticular that trust me implicitly. I can go to them to tell them about a patient and ask what they want me to do. Many times they will just say, you know what to do, go do it, I trust you just do it.

The other night at work we were short a nursing assistant, our usual one just graduated from nursing school and is now becoming a full fledged ER nurse...anyway, one of the nurses had a cart full of linen to stock the rooms with. She had it piled too high and some of it fell off, a lot of it as a matter of fact. One of our plastic surgeons saw what happened and helped her pick every bit of it up :) Nice guy :)

[truemind]

I really enjoyed reading that! Thank you!

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

I have actually TWO great doctor stories.

The first occurred long before I became a nurse. Many years ago, I was a young wife and mother. My son, 8 months old, had emergency surgery for intussusception (THANK GOD, it was caught in time). Afterwards, when the bill came due, there was still an outstanding $400 doctor bill that was not covered by our insurance. During the six-week post-op office visit for my son (December), I asked the doctor if the bill could be refiled by his office in the hopes that the insurance company would pay more. The doctor looked at me, smiled, and said, "What the insurance company has already paid is good enough for me. Don't worry about the rest. Merry Christmas." I stood there stunned, as he walked out the door. Not only was my son healthy and whole (the best gift!), but we had been relieved of the $400 debt, which was an enormous amount of money for us at the time.

Fast forward in time 17 years. My son was trying to get into West Point (which had been his dream for three years). During the routine preadmission physical at one of the army facilities, it was noted that my son had an "abnormal" EKG--a right bundle branch block which only showed up during physical exertion. So, he would have to be further evaluated by a cardiologist. I happened to mention this in passing to one of our cardiologists at work, and this very kind doctor offered to evaluate our son FOR FREE. Which he did--about $1000 in professional services, including a stress test, echocardiogram, a professional history and physical note. (BTW, a right bundle branch block in young people can be perfectly normal.) He cleared him for service in the military and my son was later admitted to West Point!!! We will never forget his kindness.

[eldernurse]

We have a great bunch of ER docs. One in particular is so great to work with. He is very pro-nurse. He puts up with ZERO abuse of nurses from patients.

Some patients who come to the ER are obviously there for attention. Instead of placating them or giving them the boot he sits down and explains what an ER is for and asks them in the context of what an ER is for, what we can do for them today.

The patient leaves with information about how to properly use an ER in the future and they are not angry or embarrassed about their visit today. I think he is terrific.

[OrthoNutter]

There's one resident doing the rounds at the moment who collects MSUs himself! Serious - when he asked me where he could find a bed pan and a sterile dish to collect an MSU, I damn near fainted. I thought maybe this was a one-off but talking to other nurses, it seems a regular occurrence.

The other night, there was this relative of an acute patient who rang up when we were all run off our feet. Since we have certain industrial work bans going on at the moment, we were only answering internal calls. Anyway, the registrar was sitting at the desk and he was taking all these external calls for us! The biggest laugh came when this relative insisted on speaking to a nurse, as the reg had only identified himself by his first name. So he handed the phone over and this lady started ranting and raving about how she can never get a hold of a doctor to talk to about her son's condition.

I can't imagine what the look on her face must have been like when I told her that she had been talking to the very doctor who was looking after her son's case, and then fobbed him off!!