OK everyone, I've GOT TO share this. I'll try to keep it fairly abridged.
I'm a fairly new (2 years) nurse. I work a BUSY med/surg floor. It was one of "those" days. We had almost NO meds on the floor while the central pharmacy was having an inventory audit, down 2 RN's and a CNA, every bed was full, lunch was an hour late, there were admin's lurking around, and ... you get the picture.
We have a new resident (I'll call him Dr. W) that is a total !@#$%. One of those cocky, condescending, everything is stat, types.
Well, he had a ton of orders (as usual), and on the very bottom, an order to stop IVF at 0800 on this particular pt, and to no excuse on my part, I just didn't see it. So at about 10 when he came around, he started yelling at me in front of other nurses and PT's, telling me how he's going to have to re-arrange his day because of me, and this pt is going to have to have his surgery postponed, (which I personally think was BS) and how I need to go report my mistake right now.
I was on the verge of tears, not because of him necessarily, just because of EVERYTHING going on at once at work and at home. While this was taking place, apparently Dr. W, didn't see our chief of staff (neither did I) standing at the nurses station about 10 feet away. The Chief at our hospital is a VERY quiet, soft spoken man, but he's always been very polite with all of us, I don't think i've ever heard him even remotely raise his voice. The chief butts in with a "Dr. W may I have a word with you" and they leave, (for quite some time) suddenly I see the chief back at the nurses station, he comes up to me and asks me if I am alright and what exactly happened, he could see I was upset. He then gives me a BIG hug, and tells me that I'm doing fine, and not to worry.
I have NO idea what was said in their meeting but, its been 2 weeks ... we still haven't seen Dr. W
To top it off ... just this morning I find out that our Chief used to be a nurse.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
years ago, and on the other side of the country, our medical director was a very gruff cardiologist who scared everyone spitless. including me. we'll call him dr. t.
i had a patient who was about 300 pounds and had a balloon pump in his femoral artery. he was scheduled for a cabg the next day, and the anesthesiologist (we'll call him dr. a-hat) had stopped by to see him. dr. a-hat demanded -- not asked, or requested, but demanded -- that i "sit the patient up so i can listen to his lungs." i explained that we couldn't sit him up due to the balloon pump, but i'd be happy to help him roll the patient on his side so he could listen to the lungs. "ok," he said, and stepped back.
"i need your help," i said. "he's too big and too stiff for me to turn him by myself."
dr. a-hat immediately flew into a tirade about what kind of disrespectful, brainless, lazy and worthless nurse would ask him to help turn a patient, since that was not in his job description. "you wouldn't ask dr. t. to help you turn a patient, so why in the world would you ask me?"
about that time, i heard dr. t.'s gruff voice saying, "ruby do you need some help with that?" he came in and helped me turn the patient so the anesthesiologist could listen to his lungs, while the anesthesiologist was falling all over himself to assure dr. t. that he didn't need to get involved, things were just fine.
"they don't sound just fine to me," dr. t. said. "i'd like a word with you, dr. a-hat, when you're done here."
we never saw dr. a-hat again, and i heard that he was removed from the cardiac anesthesia team for being verbally abusive to the ccu nurses.
There are some really awesome physicians out there. I am hoping the younger ones coming up are more like the op's great example than the "I am Super Doc" types.
That never happens where I work. Ever. That doesn't mean nurses aren't verbally abused. It doesn't mean docs aren't reprimanded. It just means the nurses are never a witness to someone coming to their defense for abusive behavior. Thanks so much for sharing.
I once had the ER medical director call the ICU and tell her (nurse) she couldn't talk to his nurses the way she did.
I don't remember what she said to me, but he totally stood up for me.
These moments are special and we need so many more of them.
That's really good that the Medical Director stood up for you although I would have preferred he didn't refer to the nurses as "his nurses" it kind of makes nurses sound like property or his pets or something but the fact that he stood up for you is the important thing.
Ms.RN
917 Posts
I know its non of my business but I wonder what happened to that patient. Did he go to another hospital?