Doctor stole my stethoscope

[ayejay09]

So, this week hasn't been fun. My lovely Litmann that I received as a Christmas gift has been stolen by a doctor. I've even gone so far as to post fliers around the unit. I know that many nurses have their stethoscope stolen. My thought is "If doctors are stealing our stethoscopes, why are the facilities not paying us for those EXPENSIVE things?" Take it out of their paychecks. Every stethoscope stolen results in money taken from their paychecks. Or make them pool money together to supply us stethoscopes.

Needless to say, I miss my stethoscope. Who else has these problems? How do you track your stethoscope down?

[Queen_of_Cardiology]

I feel your pain! We have a consultant at work who brings in dozens to the department every few weeks. When asked where he keeps finding them he says "in my office". Lord knows who he's pinched them off when visiting patients in other departments I just don't let him near mine!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

*cracks knuckles*

Okay buddy. Your stethoscope was stolen? Really? That implies an act of malice, and somehow I DOUBT that. Your property is your responsibility, if you feel it was STOLEN report it to an admin (good luck with that insanity). You will probably be told the following: you're an adult, keep track of your items. Get your stethoscope engraved. If you can't afford the extra ten dollars on that, you shouldn't be buying a Littmann anyways.

I'm not sure stealing someone's stethoscope is an act of malice. I doubt anyone goes out of their way to steal FutureFatMans stethoscope. But physicians have the nasty habit of picking up stethoscopes to use, usually without asking and sometimes asking only AFTER they've plucked it off your neck, and then walking off with them. They don't really care whose stethoscope it is; they just care that they don't have one with them, and the one they just lifted will be handy to them for the rest of their day. They don't usually care whose it is, but they do know it isn't theirs.

Stealing is the act of taking something that doesn't belong to you, so yes it is stealing. I've caught physicians in the act of scarfing down my lunch on several different occasions. They knew it wasn't their lunch, that it belonged to someone else, but they were hungry and the lunch that their department provided for them was on another floor so they just ate someone else's lunch. I've seen them scavenging through the staff refrigerator . . . And sent them on their way. More than once, I've seen doctors who came in to work yesterday when it was warm lift a coat from the staff locker room to wear home because it's cold today. Again, they know it isn't their coat, that someone else may be cold on the way home because of their actions; they just don't care. I don't understand it. My friend, a physician himself, says his colleagues just laugh about it. "Ah yeah, that's a nice North Face jacket; maybe I'll keep it."

Property does get stolen -- taken by folks who know it doesn't belong to them == and the majority of time if you every find out who took it, it's a physician.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Mine never leaves my neck! That way when someone burrows it, they must ask for it and I chase them down for it if needed:yes:

You've been lucky so far. Doctors, especially residents will just lift it right off your neck without a word if they feel like it. I suspect they believe the "MD" after their names makes them privileged.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

What a cry baby! He/she wouldn't have been embarrassed if they WEREN'T A THIEF!

And this is someone whom had taken a Hippocratic Oath, pt's are supposed to trust with their lives, and is theoretically a paradigm of integrity?

I'm not surprised though: I've seen interns lift other people's lunches, and eat from a box containing a fancy decorated cake one of the nurses had in the unit refrigerator for a private party outside of work.

Residents lifting lunches isn't all that unusual, even though many hospitals provide food for them. It's just too much work to walk all the way to their department to get the lunch provided for them. They descend upon a potluck like locusts and eat all the food before everyone who contributed has had a chance to get way to eat. They've stolen jackets to wear home because "it's cold now and I didn't bring a jacket." They've lifted expensive books from my colleagues. It's probably not malicious -- they didn't have it out for the people whose things they took. It's just entitled behavior. "I'll get cold; here's a coat. I'll just take it." Or "I'm hungry, my lunch is way over in the department. I'll just eat this one."

I once came back to the break room from a code and saw a resident finishing the lunch I'd had to abandon. He just laughed at me when I complained. I ended up calling his attending and complaining to him. That resident bought me lunch every day we worked together for the rest of his rotation, and I doubt he tried that again. One of the problems is that no one wants to "make trouble", so they get away with it.

[NFuser]

I collected several "scope coats" in bright colors and flowery patterns before the company stopped selling them. Not only do they keep the skin oils away from the tubing and my neck rash-free, but I can spot My Ears a mile away in the dark. Most docs/residents tend to shy away from borrowing the 'garish garb', so My Ears remain My Own (engraved, as well).

[animatedimp]

didn't this happen in nurse jackie?

[lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN]

Psh. Find that fool and get it back. I've gone so far as to take a beeper hostage until I got it back. Professional? Nope. Highly effective? Yep. Ain't nobody gonna steal my stuff.

[Rhyadawn]

My Littmann III lives in my pocket when I'm on the floor. At school it's in it's case (ballistics case - gotta love them!), or around my neck. It's also engraved. I lost my first L-II for a few years, but it had just fallen behind a bookshelf at home...

This morning on the floor one of the senior RNs tried to lift it out of my pocket, and she got an earful! She had left her own at the desk, and we were in an iso room, so she didn't want to get out of her gear, go down the hall, then gear up again. Too.Bad. Mine is mine, and I don't share.

[Burphel]

File a security incident report and police report when it goes missing. Theft is theft. It'll take a complete paradigm change for docs to stop thinking of stethoscopes as "community property" like pens and hemostats.

I have a Thinklabs electronic stethoscope. I'm a traveler and it's without a doubt the most expensive one in any hospital I go to. And worth it, IMO. If I'm not in the same room as it, it's locked up. As a bonus, it rides in my pocket instead of around my neck. You can damn well bet I'd be making a ruckus if it ever disappeared.

[jeanette137]

My stethoscope was borrowed by a doctor and I hunted him down and got it back. It helps to have a color that stands out. I wrote my name on the hose part with a permanent pen.

[PANYNP]

You know the wrist bands patients get when they are admitted? I wrote my first name on the name bit in big letters and wrapped that around the middle of my stethoscope. No doctor has pinched it since

Learned to do that in nursing school 36 years ago! Same with bandage scissors and hemostats.

[Thomgirl]

That's what you get for having a "doctor stethoscope". #TheView *snicker*