Difficult doctors... dealing with?

sometimes the best remiedy is to comfront him in a non hostile way. let him know you aoppreciate how he cares for his patients and that you respect his decisions, but you feel he is out of line the way he talks to you when you are on his side and part of his team. Some times the simplest of things and being truthful makes them realize how one is acting. He may gain respect for you and stop his actions. It also might be good to go to someone in charge and let them know you are planning to confront him and that way they can back you up. They are only Drs and the only difference between you and them is they have more schooling than you. We are all human not super human. good luck;)

If this MD is such a problem, then by virtue of her/his role, the DON is responsible for dealing with this situation. It's called LEAD BY EXAMPLE. If the DON refuses, I would go up the chain of command to the administrator. Ultimately, it is the residents who suffer, and this is not acceptable. No resident should have to wait for cough medicine because a nurse does not want to deal with this physician. This is neglect, a form of elder abuse.

I ran in to this problem just last night..the physician stated, "I called, but no one answered the phone." After asking co-workers re: phone call, I came to the conclusion that he was just making excuses. I ignored his rant (held the phone away from my ear until he was finished), and politely informed him of the reason for my phone call. I did not acknowledge his behavior by saying "I am so sorry no one answered the phone." I got the necessary treatment for the resident, and that was that. Goodbye and have a nice night...

I understand your dilemma completely; this physician I wrote about has similar unpleasant mannerisms, and yes, he is also difficult to understand when speaking; however he is the medical director. He does know all his residents and what is going on with each of them, and makes himself available 24 hours/day via cell phone. I go with it, but should he insult me, he will know it.

I find that a well-timed "Are you done yet?" works wonders.

You are giving this doctor too much power and control. He's human like the rest of us. Call him as need and go continue your work. You don't miss lunch or stand and wait for his call for 3 minutes to 3 hours. That's insanity.

You can try and rectify this yourself by telling him you will be addressed in a respectful manner and changing how you deal with him. Telling him in a polit and professional maner could help and it's worth a shot.

Your other option is to bring it up the food chain and get your CN involved. Putting it in writing is often because it can't be ignored. Your job is to advocate for your patients and they are suffering. Don't let it continue. Perhaps all of you can meet with CN together to discuss. Keep us posted.

docs have good days and bad days, but if a doc is usually in a bad day mood, the nurses where i work don't cover for the doc, we make their job hard as hell. docs make lots of mistakes and they don't last long without nurses covering for them and making things easier for them.

I am going to be blunt here. By waiting for him for three hours to call and missing your breaks you are enabling this sort of behaviour. You say that patients are missing out on orders for medication because of this doctor. Nurses are patient advocates and by not doing anything you are also part of the problem.

You need to document all these problems, if patients miss out on medication then document the steps you have taken to try to contact this doctor, write incident reports. Nothing will happen until it is on paper.

If he is hostile to you then let him know that his behaviour is unacceptable. Take if higher up if needed.