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 am wondering if anyone has used something that my team did a "few" years back. When a resident or attending would get testy with us or act demeaning, calling us names etc. we would have a phone chain. Since we were such "idiots" we called every 15 minutes or so to give updates and make sure that we were doing it right. We only had to do this once and they got the message. Just wanted to be sure we idiots were doing it the way you wanted. Oh! you did not want to be called back? The other problem I saw were when nurse felt some one was in a pre-code status and we needed help and medical support. This was pre RRT. Some smart aleck would berate us and tell us not to call them unless it was an emergency. So we would progress to the code team as was appropriate. Let the doc explain to the attending why they chose not to take action when they could have because it was right there in the notes that they had been called and information had been given to them.
Let me say though, while incidents occurred that really irritated the nurses en masse, there were very gracious, caring residents and attendings who did listen, who responded appropriately and did not push fault off on the RNs. They were a joy to work with and we always had collegial relations with them. They knew we could be trusted not to call for trivial things and they learned to trust our "gut feelings" and at least come a take a look. I find NPs the easiest group to work with, they know all about the "gut" thing and they were always supportive to us. They communicated with us, that was the key. They also knew we noticed things about patients that sometimes got missed and could mushroom into something big like an ingrown toenail on a quadriplegic.
hmm that's a good point, people do get defensive when questioned. I'm also like that more often than not. It may be because people feel like they are being judged when they make mistakes, and it hurts our egos a little bit. My sister is more often like you though who welcomes people telling her where a mistake was made.
But yeah, physicians should adjust their expectations that they most likely will be questioned about things they don't think they should be questioned about. Like, "hope for the best, prepare for the worst", they should hope for being asked (what they deem) 'good' questions but prepare for (what they deem) 'dumb' questions, so they don't get angry, and a better teamwork environment is maintained.
Specializes in Cardiac step-down, PICC/Midline insertion.
I just laugh when doctors are rude. And make snarky sarcastic comments back. And then I report them for being disrespectful. I don't lose sleep over a-holes that never matured past the angry, temper tantrum stage....
Do what one of my coworkers did in a similar situation. First, respond politely that "the patient will not get the consent signed because you did not clearly state the procedure. When you are willing to discuss this respectfully, please call me back at ----------." Then hang up on him. Second, write a risk management report up on the doctor's behavior. In the situation I mentioned, this doctor did this a lot with the nursing staff. His contract with the hospital was eventually terminated by the hospital due to poor behavior. Most hospitals have a policy on harrassment.
I am a retired RN. I worked in Psychiatry for over 25 years, Neurology for a couple and completed my career as a school nurse. I have worked with doctors who were rude and condescending but found that my response to them usually caused them to treat me with respect. You are not responsible for his (or her) bad manners or lack of decorum. But when you show your own competence, it goes a long way in causing others to has a new found respect for you and your role as a nurse. Above all try not to take work home or home to work.
Yeah, this does remind me of the time I had a patient with radiation pnuemonitis and sats in the low 80's. He needed steriods and antibiotics but I couldn't get the fellow on call to do anything. On my third call to him he stated "do not call me again with this patient". I promptly wrote that as an order. In the morning the attending wanted to know why this patient is not on .....steroids and ABX. My administrator wanted me to change the order also on the fellows request, stating that's not what he meant. I told her if he would like to call me and discuss the incident I would consider it. I heard nothing more, but never heard an order like that out of him again. And i did not change that order.
I know it is not the case in private hospitals but in teaching hospitals you go up the chain. If the resident will not respond then you always have the option to call the attending on call. I never had to do it much but I did it a couple of times. As far as I am concerned I have the option and duty to question any order and keep calling someone until I feel I am getting competent help. We had a resident that was crazy. We called him about a patient who had fallen and broken his hip. All the classic signs were there and we had done what we needed to do, stabilized his leg, covered him and waited for help to put him on a stretcher. The resident told me to have the staff stand him up and see is he could stand. I was dumfounded. He yelled and screamed at me and told me as a nurse I should know that if he could stand he had not broken his hip. He asked me what kind of a nurse was I. After the screaming and yelling (only from him) and another RN getting on the phone with him we were no where. He asked me again "what kind of a nurse are you, I think you are stupid"? I asked him "are you a nurse sir?". Of course he said no. I told him when he could tell me he had been through nursing school and had worked about 20 years in the field then he could question my nursing skills and I would not stand the man up I wanted a referral to the ER and X-ray. Had to call the attending to get that part. The resident disappeared never to be seen again. I wrote every bit in the record and filed an incident report.
Specializes in Med/Surg, OR, Peds, Patient Education.
Do what one of my coworkers did in a similar situation. First, respond politely that "the patient will not get the consent signed because you did not clearly state the procedure. When you are willing to discuss this respectfully, please call me back at ----------." Then hang up on him. Second, write a risk management report up on the doctor's behavior. In the situation I mentioned, this doctor did this a lot with the nursing staff. His contract with the hospital was eventually terminated by the hospital due to poor behavior. Most hospitals have a policy on harrassment.
Was this doctor a hospitalist? If so, yes, I can understand why his contract was terminated. If he was in private practice, with admitting privileges, and thus bringing money into the hospital's "coffers," many hospitals would have allowed his behavior continue. If your hospital terminated his privileges to admit patients, you worked in a very employee supportive facility.
The hospital from which I retired, had a neurosurgeon who would have temper tantrums in the OR, and was known to swear and throw instruments at the circulating nurse when the situations became difficult during surgeries. Complaints were document, but the administration did nothing, his patients liked him, his surgeries were usually successful, and he was a "gold mine" for the hospital.
OMG I would have torn a huge strip out of him. In UK we answer straight back with 10x the force.
Really drs are no longer in a superior position to us in any way shape or form. Never let anyone speak to you like that again. He's a damn social idiot. If I was in the US I'd come and beat him up for you 😤
moldyoldyrn
98 Posts
I am wondering if anyone has used something that my team did a "few" years back. When a resident or attending would get testy with us or act demeaning, calling us names etc. we would have a phone chain. Since we were such "idiots" we called every 15 minutes or so to give updates and make sure that we were doing it right. We only had to do this once and they got the message. Just wanted to be sure we idiots were doing it the way you wanted. Oh! you did not want to be called back? The other problem I saw were when nurse felt some one was in a pre-code status and we needed help and medical support. This was pre RRT. Some smart aleck would berate us and tell us not to call them unless it was an emergency. So we would progress to the code team as was appropriate. Let the doc explain to the attending why they chose not to take action when they could have because it was right there in the notes that they had been called and information had been given to them.
Let me say though, while incidents occurred that really irritated the nurses en masse, there were very gracious, caring residents and attendings who did listen, who responded appropriately and did not push fault off on the RNs. They were a joy to work with and we always had collegial relations with them. They knew we could be trusted not to call for trivial things and they learned to trust our "gut feelings" and at least come a take a look. I find NPs the easiest group to work with, they know all about the "gut" thing and they were always supportive to us. They communicated with us, that was the key. They also knew we noticed things about patients that sometimes got missed and could mushroom into something big like an ingrown toenail on a quadriplegic.