Doctor or Dockworker?

[Emergent]

Our ER director acts more like a rough and ready longshoreman than a highly educated professional. It dawned on me today that, I don't like my docs to act so blue collar. He drops F bombs right and left and acts like a truck driver or a roofer(not to disparage these indispensable tradesmen)

I don't know his family background at all as far as socio-economic class, but my favorite ER provider is the son of migrant farm-workers, grew up working in the fields, and is the classiest guy in the world.

I'd happen to think that educated professionals should act classy, at least in the workplace. Thanks for reading my little rant.

[sharpeimom]

It didn't happen at work (thank heaven!) but when I was still in college, I was home for a holiday break and was helping with holiday baking. I had a hot bubbling pie almost out of the oven when the pie dish broke and the pie hit the freshly waxed floor. I began to swear a tirade of words that automatically had become a part of my working vocabulary, thanks to the VA neuro/psych hospital where I was doing a practicum for a class.

I had never in my life seen my dad rendered absolutely, positively, totally speechless before, he was. All I could think was, "Oh boy, this will be the talk of all time." When he could speak again, he said, "You have managed to render me absolutely mute. I've been a combat pilot during a world war, been a POW, graduated from both med school and law school, and have practiced law for your entire lifetime, and have never ever had that happen!"

That was the end. It was never mentioned again.

[inshallamiami]

OP --I do take umbrage to your post equating fbombs and blue collar. My wonderful DH is blue collar....an electrician, didn't even graduate high school from Ireland. He is the most well spoken, gentle man you could ever meet...he NEVER curses, is verbally eloquent, can recite poetry for hours from memory, is kind to all, and is certainly as "classy" as any "white collar" worker. I, on the other hand, come from a family of teachers, librarians, antique dealers, artists, and I curse much more than he does. We used to keep a "curse jar" for me into which I would throw a buck each time I cursed (I worked with pts under sedation!) My team frequently went out to lunch on it. And, of course, I never cursed in front of an awake patient, family, or administration.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Yes, Sharpeimom, I too once dropped the f-bomb and a few other choice words in front of my mother; I was driving her around Nashville, TN, and had signaled and was moving toward a highway exit when a stupid, stupid driver zipped around me on my right side, the side toward which I was moving, and nearly raked the passenger door, then pulled right in front of me with just a few inches between my front bumper and her back bumper. Quite naturally, I yelled,"What the f--- are you doing, you ___________________!?"

My mother just turned and LOOKED at me, her mouth firmly closed. All I could say was "Excuse me." It was never mentioned, ever.

[ComeTogether, LPN]

I like it when people, especially doctors, are real. Certainly there is a time and a place, but I kind of find it refreshing. I'd rather work with a down to earth blue collar doc any day than one who is snotty and thinks he's better than everyone else.

[brownbook]

I would not trust, like, appreciate a Dr. or nurse taking care of me or my family and using the F bomb. I cannot imagine any situation where it would be appropriate?

I wouldn't even want to hear them use it casually among theirselves and just happen to over hear them.

If it were a code triage multiple casualties I would expect, hope, health care responders would be even more polite, calm, respectful, not swearing at each other!

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I can & do channel Julius Winfield at will but can also control my cursing. And the f-bomb has many uses, it's the epitome of the all purpose word.

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

I can & do channel Julius Winfield at will but can also control my cursing. And the f-bomb has many uses, it's the epitome of the all purpose word.

I think I've been waiting ever since I saw that movie about 10 years ago, for the perfect situation to be able to say "I DON'T RECALL ASKING YOU A ******* THING!" with as much venom as Jules does in that scene. Alas, hasn't happened yet (or at least, not in a situation where I could get away with it without getting fired).

I can swear with the best of them but have no problem reading my audience.

[Wheels28]

To be fair, I also think educated professionals should be able to adjust their approach when interacting with patients and families who might lack education, sophistry and awareness of how to effectively manage the system.

I was reared in a blue collar, working class household by parents with limited vocabularies. Their interactions with educated professionals and bureaucracies were marked with confusion and/or frustration because they could not always understand what was being told to them, but they always nodded as if they understood because they didn't want to be seen as stupid.

Doctors, teachers and other educated professionals speak utilizing jargon, complex adjectives, adverbs and synonyms that their audience might not always comprehend. For instance, a dentist told a mother that her two children had some 'tooth decay' and would need fillings. The mother didn't realize that 'tooth decay' meant 'cavities,' but she never bothered to ask what 'tooth decay' meant.

One of my father's doctors told him that his blood vessels are a little constricted from years of smoking, then gave him a prescription for Lisinopril. To this day my father does not believe he has high blood pressure, yet he didn't fully grasp the word 'constricted.'

The reality is that many people are not going to tell you that they didn't understand a word you said because they've learned all their lives to try to hide their inadequacies regarding not knowing what all these 'fancy words' mean. Therefore, I think it is immensely important for educated professionals to talk at the person's level while taking care to show respect and not infantilize him/her.

While I agree with you to a point-- one must not always assume either way if someone is educated or not, that they understand what the expert/ professional is talking about, main reason is that may not be their area of expertise, a teacher (an educated professional) might not understand what the mechanic is talking about when they say what is wrong with their car, Whereas a waitress who never went to college but has an interest in cars might know fully well what the mechanic is talking about.

"Life experience" has a lot to do with knowledge as well, I say this because I have had individuals who had no college degree have more knowledge about the disabled because either they had someone in their family who was or were exposed to someone who was disabled, Whereas I've had an educated individual assume just because I'm in a wheelchair and my legs don't work so my brain must not work either, because they were never exposed to someone who is disabled, this had led to me being talked to very slowly or the way you would talk to a baby or small child which is offensive to me. I just quickly educate them that not all disabled individuals are the same. So from that "Life Experience" they were "educated" on the disabled.

My point education is comes form not only text books, but "life experience" as well and what an individual may have been exposed to. Regardless of education, everyone is afraid to ask questions about something they have little knowledge about, because no one wants to appear stupid.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Regardless of education, everyone is afraid to ask questions about something they have little knowledge about, because no one wants to appear stupid.

I respectfully disagree. In my modest 8 years of bedside nursing experience, I've noticed it's the patients and families with social prominence, formal education and money who have absolutely no fear of asking questions.

In fact, they'll pummel staff with multiple questions, act with a pronounced sense of entitlement, and demand we call the doctor for things that cannot be changed, such as lifting an NPO (nothing by mouth) order on a patient who's having surgery in a few hours.

[Wheels28]

I respectfully disagree. In my modest 8 years of bedside nursing experience, I've noticed it's the patients and families with social prominence, formal education and money who have absolutely no fear of asking questions.

In fact, they'll pummel staff with multiple questions, act with a pronounced sense of entitlement, and demand we call the doctor for things that cannot be changed, such as lifting an NPO (nothing by mouth) order on a patient who's having surgery in a few hours.

Asking a question with a sense of entitlement, is very different from asking a question because they have no knowledge of what is being discussed, they are simply making "demands."

A better way I could have worded it is" Regardless of education, ANYONE could be afraid to ask questions about something they have little knowledge about, because no one wants to appear stupid."

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

I'm a lot more concerned with whether they practice good medicine or not.

I work with one doctor who is just a fantastic human being. People come to our ER and ask for him. They just love him. And, he is a good doctor. But when it comes to managing critically ill patients, he's not a very good clinician. He drags his feet and doesn't manage them very aggressively at all. I appreciate a more conservative approach with the not-very-sick, but when someone is going to die if we don't intervene decisively, I just find the conservative approach much less helpful. But again, he is a wonderful human being who is just as compassionate, soft spoken, kind, and classy, if you will, as can be.

I work with some other docs who can be kind of gruff, ride my behind, are rougher around the edges, but when I have a critically ill patient, boy am I glad I have one of them and not Dr. Nice.

I would much rather hear an F bomb or two and yet know that my really sick patients are being managed appropriately than the converse.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Well, the knowledge of the audience is key.

Having a rough around the edges biker as a patient to whom the f-word is liberally sprinkled in his conversation, kind of like an adjective;and not unlike the Japanese language in which an inflection or a drawing in of breath can totally change the meaning of a word ; in that it is just a qualification, or a degree of something.....it's important to be able to notice the subtelties of it's use.

Sometimes a mirroring of that kind of language back within your answer or explanation, can hit home, bringing it into the patient's verncular and thus his understanding. Explaining that something is really effing important for this or that, giving the 'effing serious as a heart-attack' qualification, and not using it as a a cuss or an insult....it can be done effectively. And it can accomplish what you want to get across. But you can't do it if you're not comfortable with it, or as if you are mocking the patent's manner of expressing him/her self.