Desperately Need to Vent

Published

Background:  Im an ER nurse with almost 6 years in the ER plus a little over a year on a Tele floor and a year of Med/Surg experience.  I just started (1week) at a new hospital, only having worked at 2 other hospitals in my career.  For the first time in my career, I’ve encountered doctors who treat nurses like they are servants and I just can’t get past it.  I’m not an emotional or sensitive person; I've spent the last 6 years in a hospital where the norm patient population is verbally abusive and too frequently physically aggressive.  I’ve never gone home and cried and I can’t tell if its because I’m angry or hurt.

 

I got a patient whose chief was ‘trouble breathing’ so of course I went in to assess the patient right away.  I found a 28 year old child bearing age woman who had a laparoscopic surgery the day before in extreme post op pain who said ‘the pain is so bad I can’t take a breath’.  I logged in and saw the doctor who had not seen the patient yet had ordered a battery of expensive tests including 2 CT scans and a bnp.  I went to the doctor and said “so and so is actually a post op patient who is in so much pain she can’t breathe, do you still want to order - at the point the doctor cut me off with a ‘yes’ and stood up and walked away.  

 

Later in the shift the unit secretary finds me to tell me that the doctor wanted to see me to get an update on a cellulitis patient.  I was in the middle of inserting an IV so thanked her and was planning to finish the IV first.  My preceptor comes in to tell me the doctor wants to see me even though she knows I heard and she was nervous so I got the picture that if a doctor summons you the expectation is that you stop what your doing and answered the summons.

 

So I head to the dictation office on the other side of the large ER and check my Zebra to see if I missed a call or text on the way and had not.  She had indeed summoned me for a status update on a patient in what I feel was retaliation and a message that she would not tolerate being questioned.  

 

I've never had a physician treat me this way before and I worked with surgeons.  Was I just very lucky?  I in turn have never in my life treated or believed that CNA, or EVS or ANYONE was inferior to me.  I’m a nurse because I want to be a nurse, I could easily have been a doctor if I wanted to…with the straight As and sterling record to match.  I can’t get past this mentally,..ugh. I feel like I’m being a drama queen and can’t stop.  

 

Do doctors deep down really believe we are inferior to them?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

I am an NP and some doctors treat me like this on the regular. Do not take it personal. Just like you’ll find nurses that are mean, and difficult to deal with you’ll find physicians that are this way as well. It’s not a doctor v nurse thing, it is a that person is just not a nice person thing. 

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
On 6/26/2022 at 4:29 AM, AlwaysTiredNP said:

It’s not a doctor v nurse thing, it is a that person is just not a nice person thing. 

Agree with ^ this.

OP, maybe this physician is or isn't generally a nice person. Either way I have some food for thought for you, which I hope you will take in the spirit it is being offered:

On 6/22/2022 at 7:06 PM, LiLev said:

“so and so is actually a post op patient who is in so much pain she can’t breathe, do you still want to order

The translation here is that someone new here walked up and said, in effect, "you don't know what's going on and I disagree with your orders." Meanwhile, we know that not every 28 year old (male or female) with pain and difficulty breathing gets the expensive work-up you're reporting as a matter of routine--in fact there are lots of younger people with those complaints who don't--so it would be reasonable to think that the physician might have reasons they ordered the things they did. Also, yes it may not be ideal if the patient really hadn't been seen yet, but that doesn't mean the MD didn't know about the post op status--one of the first things some of ours do is look at recent records. So you kinda walked up to someone who very well could have done  that and implied that they didn't know anything.

 

On 6/22/2022 at 7:06 PM, LiLev said:

She had indeed summoned me for a status update on a patient in what I feel was retaliation and a message that she would not tolerate being questioned.   

Need more details about how you came to this conclusion.

On 6/22/2022 at 7:06 PM, LiLev said:

I in turn have never in my life treated or believed that CNA, or EVS or ANYONE was inferior to me.

 

On 6/22/2022 at 7:06 PM, LiLev said:

I could easily have been a doctor if I wanted to

 

On 6/22/2022 at 7:06 PM, LiLev said:

I feel like I’m being a drama queen and can’t stop. 

 

I do not know you obviously. But based on what you wrote I do think you are letting this get you a little ramped up.

A couple of your statements indeed seem like you could be the one who is a little preoccupied with the idea of superiority and feelings of inferiority. Eg. Very few people (including physicians) can say that they "could easily have been a doctor" -- that's quite a statement because it isn't "easy," even for people who successfully did it. And it is significantly more rigorous a course of study than nursing, like it or not. It is what it is, but if you are satisfied with your course in life then it really doesn't matter whether you could have been a physician or not.

And if there is one physician in a random ED somewhere who does think they are superior to you and every other nurse out there: Who CARES, you know??

It's all good. I say try to develop a rapport over time. If this physician is not a nice person then it is what it is, and if that's the case it is THEIR problem; you shouldn't let it take up space in your head.

??

You have some internal dialog that is contributing to this picture.

 

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Nursing.
On 6/22/2022 at 7:06 PM, LiLev said:



 

  

Later in the shift the unit secretary finds me to tell me that the doctor wanted to see me to get an update on a cellulitis patient.  I was in the middle of inserting an IV so thanked her and was planning to finish the IV first.  My preceptor comes in to tell me the doctor wants to see me even though she knows I heard and she was nervous so I got the picture that if a doctor summons you the expectation is that you stop what your doing and answered the summons.

 

So I head to the dictation office on the other side of the large ER and check my Zebra to see if I missed a call or text on the way and had not.  She had indeed summoned me for a status update on a patient in what I feel was retaliation and a message that she would not tolerate being questioned.  

 

 

I am assuming that you are working in an ED correct? If so, I would have told the physician that if he needs that urgent of an update on a patients status he could have gone to the patients bedside and assessed them himself rather than pulling you away from your other patients to go find him. That just seems demanding and passive aggressive. I also come from an ED where our physicians have a track record of not reassessing their patients, not updating them on test results, even not telling them they are being admitted.  Its very frustrating. 

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, Occupational Health.

It’s been my experience that it’s takes time for some doctors in the ER to trust the judgement of nurses that they don’t know and it doesn’t matter how much previous experience you might have.  Could be that this part of what’s going on here.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion