Docs yelling at nurses....

[ClassQ1]

Hi guys,

I have been reading the several posts about doctors yelling at the nurses. I am wondering:

1. As a male nurse, is it any different?

2. Have you ever had to deal with yelling physicians? If yes, what did you do? How did you deal with it? I read several posts stating from mouthing off to cry in the bathroom (mostly women on how they react).

3. It is my second career moving from a corporate environment with lots of politics. We cannot tolerate such things. A person can be written up for such behaviors. However, me going into nursing, I carry the same habits. I cannot put up with such behaviors. I am just wondering how to prepare myself. It is something common and have to learn to deal with it or there are ways to handle it without feeling embarrassed such as involving HR,etc...? The politically correct way that I know is to let the physician know that he doesnt realize that he is yelling and to go to a more private place to discuss it and if he doesnt listen, just walk away from him (ignore him).

Please enlighten me with your experiences and advises....

[Ginny Weasley]

my boyfriend is a resident doctor and he told me that its usually the other way around...that the nurse's yell at the doctors, espeically if they are residents or interns. in my opinion however, i think it goes both ways. they both can be mean and nasty to each other. one is not worse than the other. i guess it depends on the stress level of the hospital you are in, and how well staffed it is. i don't know. but hey, just think of all the poor cna's out there that get yelled at by nurse's everyday for not working fast enough (lol!). i think its worse when the family of a patient yells at you though. that's like the ultimate worst. guys nurse's are usually loads nicer than female nurse's by the way (at least in my experiance) ; )

[ClassQ1]

Thank you all for an overwhelming response...

[bigredrn57]

I remember this one doc who used to delight in terrorizing nurses. He would have them in tears. One night it was my turn. He proceeded to yell, I stuck my hand out to shake his hand. The louder his voice got the tighter my grip became. He let out a yelp and I let him go like the cur he is.

[Alex'sDad]

I won't tolerate a screaming doc. PERIOD! I will walk away, but I won't drop it. I will request an apology in writing and/or discipline for the offensive "professional" if he/she is very out of line or vulgar.

I have had a doc before a board at a local hospital because he screamed at me for a med error that was done by another nurse. I had just clocked in and was on my way to get report when he stepped into the hall and proceed to make an A*& off himself by screaming at me.

I went to the VP of Nursing and to the CEO of the hospital and demanded a written apology be posted in the hospital. It was eventually done and for some reason that doctor just doesn't like me any longer.

Stick to your guns, guys! Even if the fault IS ours, we're all professionals and deserve to be treated as such.

[pawashrn]

when a nurse is being berated by a physician. That nurse should call a Code Pink. This is a code for all available nurses to come and stand beside the nurse being yelled out. Without words or physical intimidations, all the nurses stand in a group and look at the physician in solidarity. Then you write a letter to the Medical Director with details of the incident.

[Dr.Nurse2b]

when a nurse is being berated by a physician. That nurse should call a Code Pink. This is a code for all available nurses to come and stand beside the nurse being yelled out. Without words or physical intimidations, all the nurses stand in a group and look at the physician in solidarity. Then you write a letter to the Medical Director with details of the incident.

Pink? :icon_roll

[getoverit, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Hi guys,

I have been reading the several posts about doctors yelling at the nurses. I am wondering:

1. As a male nurse, is it any different?

2. Have you ever had to deal with yelling physicians? If yes, what did you do? How did you deal with it? I read several posts stating from mouthing off to cry in the bathroom (mostly women on how they react).

3. It is my second career moving from a corporate environment with lots of politics. We cannot tolerate such things. A person can be written up for such behaviors. However, me going into nursing, I carry the same habits. I cannot put up with such behaviors. I am just wondering how to prepare myself. It is something common and have to learn to deal with it or there are ways to handle it without feeling embarrassed such as involving HR,etc...? The politically correct way that I know is to let the physician know that he doesnt realize that he is yelling and to go to a more private place to discuss it and if he doesnt listen, just walk away from him (ignore him).

Please enlighten me with your experiences and advises....

you are right about the politically correct way of dealing with it. never degenerate down into an arguement or raise you voice in return, even if you're right you'll end up looking bad...and you'll give the offending doctor a legitimate complaint back against you.

here's an example: several years ago we had flown a victim from a car wreck into the trauma center (reported unresponsive, GCS4), the neurosurgical team had been activated per protocol. To make a long story short, when we landed and I took a look at the guy, he didn't seem that bad off: awake but nonverbal, seemed a little confused but could hold up appropriate # of fingers, no obvious injury, stable vitals, VERY minimal damage to the car. to me it seemed he had a seizure and drove off the road. when we landed at the hospital the neurosurgeon started screaming and yelling at me for not having his patient intubated. This was in the trauma bay in front of 20 people. I told him I felt the guy was postictal. the doc referred to me as the "idiot transport tech" and started yelling for paralytics because I couldn't recognize an "obvious closed head injury".

I went back to the helicopter to get some paperwork and when I returned to the bay....the surgeon was removing his gloves while the patient was off the backboard, giving his demographics to the registration clerk, after informing the doc that he had epilepsy and had a prodromal eipsode before steering his car off the road.

It was deadpan silence when I looked at the surgeon and said "Thank God for all your training cause we would've just taken him to the OR before he could even give us his name."

The doc said "you were right", he walked out and I got an ovation from all the other RNs in the room.

After that, he and I got along fine. The point is sometimes doctors just enjoy belittling nurses and when you can respectfully "put them back in their place" you rarely ever have a problem with them again. Also, sometimes it seems they try to just see how far they can go before crossing a line. If you can inject some humor into your point and don't let it outwardly bother you, you'll usually come out glad you did.

[pawashrn]

pink is just a color. Common sense prevailing any color can do. DUH

[redrnr2]

you are joking

[redrnr2]

staring down a doctor does no good it just enforces the boundries between nurses and MD's

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

A code pink usually stands for infant abduction in most hospitals!

[End Game RN, RN]

Hi guys

As a rule our Docs are very good about this sort of thing.

However one day last week our chief resident actually looked at me with disbelief, disgust?? Disappointment? definately anger. He was shocked that I permitted our ICU attending to write orders on one of our patients in our ICU. He chastised me in front of our attending in neurosurgery, he pointed his finger in my face. He told me that for now on I am to call the team about the patient and tell them what orders have been written before carrying them out. Our attending told our chief resident quietly, calmly that this really was not my fault and to let it go. I told the chief that blood pressure paramenters had not been changed and our ICU attending was trying to medically manage the patient per last orders by this patient's team.

I was then told that due to my experience I should have known that these new orders were "inappropriate" (not really) I told him (with a serious, contrite expression) that yes, he was right, I did fail in my responsibility to this patient. I promised that in the future I would call him or any other member of our cranial team to discuss and question any and all orders written by anyone not on this team including our ICU attending.

He looked at me, seemed puzzled a bit by my answer, then said "Good, see that you do".

Needless to say our attending physician looked at me, then at his chief, then at me again..I clearly won this battle. It was funny, especially since he didn't seem to "get it"

But this guy is a really good person, brillant, outstanding neurosurgeon and generally congenial. Everyone has bad days. My apology and response seemed to have provoked a "Brain Fart" on his part in that he seemed to have no clue of what I was actually telling him I would do.

Sometimes I think I have to much fun at work!!

See ya...Eeka End Game RN