Can a nurse report a MD for being rude?

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Sep 19, 2010

While I have confronted my share of rude docs, there is always that one arrogant SOB that totally discounts any modicum of a "professional discussion" regarding their rudeness. I actually had an MD put her hand in my face and turn her back when I was mentioning to her (out of earshot of the patient) that her f-bombs and yelling was scaring her patient. I said, "You don't want to listen to me? Fine, you can talk to legal once I finish filing my incident report!" When I went back to see the patient, she immediately asked for another doctor.

Guest219794 · Sep 19, 2010

Let him go back to sleep, then call back for clarification.

BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN · Sep 19, 2010

No one has a right to be rude in the work place. I've worked with Docs who think they can treat others like trash because they are somehow entitled. My hospital has a formal process for these complaints and they are usually handled swiftly. However,..occasionally one of the Docs just refuses to play nice no matter how often they have their hands slapped by administration.

On one such occasion,.after multiple complaints by multiple staff, I charted in the pt's chart,.... 0100 " Dr Jones paged re increased HR, BP et c/o HA", 0130 "no reply from Dr Jones,.repaged" 0200 "Dr Jones phoned,.updated re pt c/o et change in VS. Dr Jones states "what the hell are you doing calling me in the middle of the ******* night? This **** can ******* wait until the ******* sun comes up!" No new orders at this time. Family pt et family updated re no change in plan of care.

I only had to do this once......:)

BTW I would never handle the "first offense" this way! Use your hospital policies first!

scoochy · Sep 19, 2010

You might want to check out the thread entitled "Abusive Doctors."

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

Last night I got my head bitten off by an on-call MD who has a reputation for being rude.
I got to thinking today. Would it be possible for me to report him at least to the DON of the facility?
I don't want to be shot down and be told "Oh just let it go". Because other nurses are telling me stories about him having the same attitude(of course I will just mention my story).
Should I add an addendum in my nurses notes what he said during my call?

No...if it doesn't pertain to patient care, it has no business in the chart.

My advice, unless he says something totally offensive (cursing, overly sexual, etc)..to say nothing.

No, it isn't right, but you have to understand that physicians bring business into the hospital and the hospital bends over backwards to recruit and keep them.

I am not sure what he bit your head off for, but sometimes, as much as you hate it, you have to listen to what was being said...was he technically right?

For example, I had to call and wake-up an MD to get an order for blood and he ripped my head off, even though the Hct was critically low, but in his bashing me, he NEVER gave me an order for blood.

After he was done with his rant I calmly said, "Just so we are on the same page, the Hct is _____ and you don't wish to order a blood transfusion at this time, correct?"

He was quiet and then said it wasn't "low" enough to call him and wake him up for (notice he still didn't make a decision?). That is when I informed him that according to policy, I am REQUIRED to call AND chart that I called the MD, whenever we have a critically low Hct and he could discuss that policy with the Medical Director, but I had no choice.

I asked him again, if he wanted to disregard the order for blood.

He eventually ordered the blood....but it was like pulling teeth.

As long as you are calling him for legitimate reasons, I personally don't care if they get mad or not...that is why they get paid the big bucks and if they get woke up, it falls under the category of too bad.

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

Dr Jones states "what the hell are you doing calling me in the middle of the ******* night? This **** can ******* wait until the ******* sun comes up!" !

We had a nurse that charted such a conversation in the chart about two weeks after I started.

She was fired.

Reason: Charting personal staff converations that had nothing to do with patient care.

Other Reason: Set the physician and the hospital up for a lawsuit.

She was told that she could chart how many times he was called, recalled, paged, etc. But you cannot write, "physician never responed to call" or any personal comments. All you can chart is when you called and if there were new orders or not.

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

Honest question from a fairly new ltc nurse.... What would be the repercussions if you dished back some of what you got? When I was in the military, we had to respect higher ranking authority, but the physician is not anywhere in my chain of command.:thankya:

That's almost guaranteed to backfire: not only is it unprofessional on your part, you risk being disciplined for your behavior.

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

That's almost guaranteed to backfire: not only is it unprofessional on your part, you risk being disciplined for your behavior.

I agree. The chain of command is a trickle-down effect. The physician complains to the Medical Director who complains to the DON who complains to your Nurse Manager and before you know it, you are sitting in the office being written up.

If you ever stand your ground with a physician, you really, really need to be sure of your footing b/c 9 times out of 10, it is a battle you are not going to win.

Now, that doesn't mean you have to be a doormat. If they start cursing (and there is a difference between cursing at you vs cursing at the situation), you can calmly say, "I understand you are upset, I am here to help you, but I am going to have to ask that you not use that kind of language with me."

It is going to be hard for him to take that kind of comment to the higher ups...but if you get into a power war with them, it generally will not work out in your favor.

YEGRN · Sep 27, 2010

Absolutely. I had a "situation" with an attending MD when I was a new grad and he chewed me out in front of patients, colleagues, everyone right at the nurses' station. I admitted my wrongdoing, but he continued to yell and be abusive. I went to my unit mgr (crying, upset) and was discouraged from reporting him. I should have just said ***** it, I'm reporting him. My mgr later told me that he would apologize to me, but the jerk never did. If it ever happens again, damn right I'm reporting him or her. We work too hard and deserve a heck of a lot more respect than MDs and the public give us. I love being a nurse, but if it ever happened again, heck yeah, I'm reporting him or her. Enough is enough. :mad:

Bosslady951, MSN, RN, APRN · Nov 24, 2020

I had an experience with a physician who had a horrible reputation and most of the nurses were terrified of him. He was such a jerk, I remember the scandal with him because he got his NP pregnant. He would yell and scream in the phone at you when you called to report labs or report a patient change in condition. One time he had an argument on the phone with a nurse who tried to stand up for herself and came to the facility and choked her in the med room. What an ***.

chempansy · Nov 24, 2020

3 hours ago, Bosslady951 said:

I had an experience with a physician who had a horrible reputation and most of the nurses were terrified of him. He was such a jerk, I remember the scandal with him because he got his NP pregnant. He would yell and scream in the phone at you when you called to report labs or report a patient change in condition. One time he had an argument on the phone with a nurse who tried to stand up for herself and came to the facility and choked her in the med room. What an ***.

Oh my god, he choked her? Please tell me this guy was arrested for that behavior. That's completely unacceptable, and I hope she pressed charges for physical assault.

Bosslady951, MSN, RN, APRN · Nov 24, 2020

1 hour ago, chempansy said:

Oh my god, he choked her? Please tell me this guy was arrested for that behavior. That's completely unacceptable, and I hope she pressed charges for physical assault.

She was afraid of him, we all told her to press charges and try to report him to the cops but she refused. He was the medical director, how inappropriate

1 hour ago, chempansy said:

Oh my god, he choked her? Please tell me this guy was arrested for that behavior. That's completely unacceptable, and I hope she pressed charges for physical assault.

And I didn't see him choke her but her neck was really red when she came out of there so we all totally believed her