I almost forgot why I left nursing in the first place. Now I really like my new coworkers. I get along with my team. YES! But I was brought to reality when a doc called me an idiot.
I call the urologist and ask for clarification on a procedure he is going to do , and the urologist says," ARe you an Idiot? What else am I going to do. I am a urologist."
Me-" Urology is not my specialty doctor and I need to know the exact procedure. So is it , Laparoscopic Cyst Ablation, cystoscopy, Lithotripsy, or something else?" (Thank god for Google, there are about a dozen others he could be doing.)
GRR. I am damn sure he would never have called our house doc an idiot. Our house doc didn't even know what procedure was going to be done. And I am supposed to know out of probably a dozen what a urologist does? No. And I am not an idiot for not knowing which one.
Sorry guys, I just had to vent. It's better than me taking it out on my bf who actually is a doctor too. I came home and told him "YOUR PEOPLE SUCK!"
He was upset because he said he would never call anyone an idiot, and to please refrain from using the term "You people."
So here I am , back at nursing. Remembering why I left in the first place. It just is so hard for me to let that stuff slide and not let it affect me. I also don't want to take it out on my boyfriend everytime I have issues with a doctor at work.
I'm loving all the responses to snarky providers given here. I didn't get such helpful advice when I asked....but I'm taking note now.
To the OP I had also been out of nursing for quite a long time and had almost forgotten just how disrespectful some providers can be. After having spent another career immersed in being extra careful about crossing boundaries and lifting others up it was quite shocking to re-enter nursing
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
You should pass that doc's name around. If he was mean to you imagine how he would act with a patient...esp under anesthesia
Years ago, I was working with a rather new cardiology resident. It was long before electronic order entry, and verbal orders were common. The cardiac surgery attending came by and insisted that the patient be on a heparin drip. The cardiology resident gave me a verbal order to start the drip, and I dutifully wrote the order in the chart -- as was common practice then -- and started a heparin drip, fully expecting the resident to sign the order at his first opportunity. He didn't. Not only did he NOT sign the order, he crossed it off and wrote "I never gave this order." Fortunately for me, the cardiac surgeon had witnessed him giving me the order and said so.
My manager took the picture from the "Meet your new colleagues" brochure we got every time we had a new crop of residents and posted it on the dry erase board in the staff room. She circled the (rather small) picture about forty times with RED and wrote in 12 inch high letters: "Do not take verbal orders from this man." Then she invited the managers of the other ICUs and step down units to have lunch with her in our staff room. Of course, the picture was a huge source of conversation and since that resident got to see patients in the other ICUs and the step down units, their managers took note of the incident and passed it on to their staff.
In a 400 bed hospital where verbal orders were the norm, suddenly no one would take verbal orders from this guy anymore. His attending heard about the incident. Apparently, his attending disagreed with the heparin drip and rather just confessing that he'd ordered it and immediately D/Cing the drip, he'd lied to the attending as well. Last I heard, he was looking for another residency . . . .
What amazes me about this thread is that a few weeks ago there was quite a hullabaloo raised when an article suggested that physician bullying was epidemic. Outraged nurses across the country wrote to chastise the author and revel in their own collegial relationships, as if bullying was a concept fabricated by an incompetent ne'er do well seeking to tarnish the blameless. It is quite apparent that bullying is indeed alive and well and it is such a part of the culture that we spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to understand its origins and come up with creative ways to address it. With all due respect, this is bull. Physicians bully because they can. The power differential is alive and well until we act to change it. Join a union and use your collective power to force hospitals to be accountable for the work environment. If every time a physician acted inappropriately, it was documented and the hospital was subject to a hostile work environment investigation, it would become expedient for them to cut their losses and change the expectations for physicians who desire admitting privileges. After all, multiple studies suggest that empowered nurses provide better care and there is no reason on earth to allow any individual to jeapordize that climate simply because he "didn't get enough sleep." Adults behave accordingly and by not demanding respect, we are colluding in our own degradation.
Huh! Years ago, a female plastic surgeon who sometimes provided care for our trauma ICU patients would call us "good little nurses" - as in "Be a good little nurse and run and bring me a bottle of hydrogen peroxide".
Aaaaaaargghhh
Blows my theory out of the water! Ashamed of myself for being sexist.
Umm, I would have told him he needs to speak to me in a professional manner and not to insult me. Doctors used to get away with that nonsense 30 years ago with nurses but not today. You can report him and document this. Trivial or not, you don't have to put up with that.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
What amazes me about this thread is that a few weeks ago there was quite a hullabaloo raised when an article suggested that physician bullying was epidemic. Outraged nurses across the country wrote to chastise the author and revel in their own collegial relationships, as if bullying was a concept fabricated by an incompetent ne'er do well seeking to tarnish the blameless. It is quite apparent that bullying is indeed alive and well and it is such a part of the culture that we spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to understand its origins and come up with creative ways to address it. With all due respect, this is bull. Physicians bully because they can. The power differential is alive and well until we act to change it. Join a union and use your collective power to force hospitals to be accountable for the work environment. If every time a physician acted inappropriately, it was documented and the hospital was subject to a hostile work environment investigation, it would become expedient for them to cut their losses and change the expectations for physicians who desire admitting privileges. After all, multiple studies suggest that empowered nurses provide better care and there is no reason on earth to allow any individual to jeapordize that climate simply because he "didn't get enough sleep." Adults behave accordingly and by not demanding respect, we are colluding in our own degradation.
Just because I've witnessed a few episodes of individual physicians behaving like boors and bullies over the past forty years does not mean that physician bullying is epidemic. What IS epidemic is a culture that seems to overreact to every interaction they dislike by calling it "bullying." If the article had been written forty years ago, I might have agreed with the premise, however things have changed a lot in the past forty years.
Physicians do sometimes behave inappropriately. So do nurses, CNAs, Respiratory Therapists, X-Ray techs, dietitians, social workers and even priests. In general, we instruct people in how to treat us. Usually (except for in some extreme cases that tend to make great stories later), all that is needed is for someone to say "We'll talk about Mr. P's procedure when you're calmer," or some variation thereof. Adults, and people who behave like adults command respect. Pardon me, but I've not seen a whole lot of degradation of nurses.
" I almost forgot why I left nursing in the first place. Now I really like my new coworkers. I get along with my team. YES! But I was brought to reality when a doc called me an idiot. "
If you were gonna leave anyway over this, and even if not: I probably would have responded, "I'm not an idiot but obviously the same can't be said for you, so AGAIN for clarification: ..."
This is something to keep in mind, but not applicable when dealing with a Dr. who just makes a habit of treating people like servants of an evil master. I agree with responding in a civil manner, but bad behaviour should not be allowed to continue.
The patients who overhear in-person interactions like this are harmed as well.
this is a little long, but please read (it's from Steven Covey):
""I remember a mini-Paradigm Shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly -- some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene. Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.
"The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.
"It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?"
"The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, 'Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either.'
"Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn't have to worry about controlling my attitude or my behavior; my heart was filled with the man's pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. "Your wife just died? Oh, I'm so sorry. Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?" Everything changed in an instant."
Who really knows what is going on with this doc. It's a bit of work, but I think it is worthwhile to learn to put one's ego in one's back pocket and just be nice to people.
Thankfully I haven't seen anything as a bad as this for years. In the past the night shift would be terrified to call the surgeons, but some would call in the middle of the night for medications for constipation.
I had an ortho doc demean me for calling during the day because of pain. He wanted me to have the figures for what the patient had received from their PCA and when he discovered they hadn't maxed themselves out I was not to call until they did. Now we don't even use PCAs for our joint replacements.
Some of the hot head surgeons are actually very skillful and care about their patient's outcome which made some of it easier to deal with, but I remember a vascular surgeon screaming in the hallway on a weekend because a particular medication was locked in the manager's office and he needed it for a dressing change. He clarified he wasn't mad at us and it was a bit humorous witnessing a grown man having a tantrum. Poor patients who heard that.
The surgeons who used to regularly go off on nurses do not anymore as they have been reported and disciplined. Somehow they learned to behave themselves despite their stress.
Before I was a nurse I was a probation officer. I was called far harsher things by judges than I've ever experienced from doctors. Don't let someone else's boorish behavior affect you.
shellyscorner
22 Posts
Actually, I think it may have more to do with the "God Complex" that so many of them seem to develop!