Can you refuse to work with a certain MD?

Trauma Columnist · Jun 20, 2005

I don't think I would refuse to work with him. However, I would think that if he is disciplined, he would shape up. Good luck.

elkpark · Jun 20, 2005

Continue to document and report any/all of his unprofessional/abusive/problematic (whatever the issue is) behavior, and work together as a group (the staff on your unit) on this -- you don't want to be perceived by administration as the one person who has a problem with him!

It is the legal responsibility of the hospital/facility administration to ensure that its employees (the nursing staff) are not subjected to a "hostile work environment," even if it is an independent physician (not an employee of the facility) who is creating the problem. If it is a legitimate, ongoing problem (and not just a one-time incident or personality clash with one or two individuals), then the administration has to fix it ...

mfshirk · Jun 20, 2005

Continue to document and report any/all of his unprofessional/abusive/problematic (whatever the issue is) behavior, and work together as a group (the staff on your unit) on this -- you don't want to be perceived by administration as the one person who has a problem with him!

In one day, an incident report was written by the nurse caring for the patient and another incident report was written by another doctor. They were two separate incidents. Luckily, I am not the only one who has no respect for this man.

What a mess.

justmanda · Aug 1, 2005

We have recently experienced a very upsettting incident with a physician. He has been written up. I would say that the majority of nurses on my floor would prefer never to see him again. After such an upsetting situation, we have no respect for the man. He is part of a group of physicians, can we refuse to take to work with him? What are our options?

Just curious, what did he do? There was a doctor at my hospital who jumped around like an idiot because he had to come in and see a crashing patient. He thought there was a documentation error on the admission paperwork and that he was not actually the primary doc. Turns out he was. But, he got in the nurse's face, followed her down to icu (where we were transferring the patient) and continued to yell at her. THEN, he followed her back up to our floor and, at that point, she was acting like he wasn't even there. It was quite entertaining. We all just let him run around like a moron, meanwhile having normal conversations with one another like he was invisible. He stormed out like a 2 year old. He was written up and forced to HAND WRITE an apology. His excuse: He had a newborn at home and was suffering from lack of sleep. Poor baby.

CharlieRN · Sep 25, 2005

I have written up a doctor once in my career. I did it very carefully, in fear and trembling. Must have done ten drafts of that note. Boy am I glad! I handed my note to the ER unit supervisor, he passed it to the Chief of Emergency Medicine, he passed it on to the Chief of surgery, the chief of surgery took it to the chief medical officer of the Medical Center and he waved it in the face of the surgeon at a meeting of the full medical staff! Once you put something on paper it has a life of its own.