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I first witnessed an angry temper tantrum from a physician during my time as a student on clinical rotations nearly 4 years ago. He was loudly screaming at a floor nurse in front of patients, visitors, students, and other nurses right in the middle of a med/surg floor. I'll never forget that moment.
Unfortunately, no nurse can scream, curse, and embarrass a doctor in the middle of a hospital floor and get away with it. The nurse will be written up, suspended, or fired by hospital management. The doctor, on the other hand, often walks away scot-free after making angry outbursts.
The double standards certainly exist and persist.
This is true. The doctor isn't going to lose any sleep over you after he/she behaves badly. Therefore, no nurse should lose any sleep over it, either. I absolutely hate when a nurse starts crying or shaking after being on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing. It's time to stand up for oneself in a tactful manner.Yeah, I'm not going to let whether or not an MD is going to get mad affect my day. They don't care if they make me mad, why should I worry about them?
This is true. The doctor isn't going to lose any sleep over you after he/she behaves badly. Therefore, no nurse should lose any sleep over it, either. I absolutely hate when a nurse starts crying or shaking after being on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing. It's time to stand up for oneself in a tactful manner.
My packaged response to a childish tantrum is "You are pretty puny, you shouldn't have such a hard time getting over yourself" as I walk away/hang up.
A friend of mine was yelled at and humiliated for asking a doctor a question. Chairs flung across the nurses station, calling pharmacy and declaring the "stupid nurse" had a question, throwing everything in his pockets across the romm while attempting to find a pen.. really bad deal. She wrote him up, and he was ordered to go to anger management classes or lose his position with the hospital. I guess he has been nothing but polite and helpful since then...:chuckle
~BlueBug
I've seen a doc or two who definitely need some therapy or a good right hook to the jaw. Mostly though, the docs I work with are respectful and pleasant to work with. I don't get upset when a doc freaks out. I find it rather amusing to see a grown man throwing a phone across the nurses' station because it didn't work. That'll bite him in the ass soon enough.
emtj
21 Posts
I just saw this link on AOL i'm starting nursing school next month just wondering if you nurses out there have ever encountered anything like this.
http://news.aol.com/health/article/obnoxious-doctors-drive-hospital-stress/266939