Doctors getting angry??

Tweety, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2008

I've never been "yelled at" by a doctor. Most of the docs I work with are great, but they do get upset. An example would be a doctor recently wrote for us to record wound vac drainage in our I&O's and wrote it every day for three days until he finally got upset that we couldn't seem to follow this order. Doctors are human too and when we're not doing our job - usually because we're busy, short staffed and overworked, they have a right to be angry - but not a right to abuse and humilate. Fortunately it's rare where I work.

Not that I work with saints, some definitely have personalities I don't like, but they do know how to for the most part get angry appropriately.

I too have the skills to listen and respond.

Preemienurse23 · Dec 5, 2008

Only one of our docs can get kinda snappy in an emergency situation. Its one of our practitioners who nobody wants to call, even in an emergency! The night nurses have even heard him throw the phone when he is woken up.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Dec 5, 2008

I have only witnessed docs throw something twice in 25 years:

#1 Before I was a nurse, I was having my third C-section and the phone rang. Some one answered it and told the OB he was wanted on the phone. He threw whatever he had in his hand across the room and I heard it hit the wall. He didn't take the call.

#2 Fairly new nurse had a cardiac pt with chest pain. She got a 12 lead(standing order) and called cardiologist to say pt had ST elevations in all leads. Cardiologist came quckly to floor, looked at the EKG and threw the chart across the counter yelling " he's got a G.. D... pacemaker!" Nurse went to monitor classes, doc went to charm school.

FlowerbuddRN2B · Dec 5, 2008

there was a Dr at our hospital who lost his temper and called a nurse stupid and vented as well, and was ordered to go to anger management classes.

Hmm or maybe it was the same one lol

Thundercat · Dec 5, 2008

I knew of this one doctor that was so rude and very nasty, that if he wanted something done and if you did not do it, he wanted to you to call him at home just so he could yell at you. One time a staff member told me that he wanted me to call him at home because I endorse a tx to another nurse. The res did not want the tx to be done until a certain time which was on the on coming shift. :confused:

THAT Nurse., MSN, RN, APRN · Dec 5, 2008

I knew of this one doctor that was so rude and very nasty, that if he wanted something done and if you did not do it, he wanted to you to call him at home just so he could yell at you. One time a staff member told me that he wanted me to call him at home because I endorse a tx to another nurse. The res did not want the tx to be done until a certain time which was on the on coming shift.

Oh he could call me at home, but he wouldn't do the majority of the yelling.

If I got in trouble over it, I think it would probably be for enjoying it too much and gloating about it.

CaliGirl0629 · Dec 5, 2008

As a nursing student about to graduate, I have witnessed MDs yelling at nurses too. It is really quite frightening but I was quite impressed by how the nurse handled the situation. She was calm and didn't become defensive. I guess there is no reason to add to the fire. It just sucks that MDs can go around treating others that way.

But then again....I've been yelled at by a nurse for not charting the way she wanted in front of all the other nurses and my classmates.

Scrubby · Dec 5, 2008

I can see a lot of doctors are under pressure. I'm happy to let them vent as long as it doesn't become personal and a verbal attack on myself or my fellow nursing staff.

Any doctor who wants to raise his voice at me will get nowhere. I will just turn my back on them and ignore them until I am spoken to in a calm and rational manner. I have had a doctor yell at me on the phone and I just hang up on them. They can complain to management all they like, I am not going to be bullied.

And if I ever witness or see a surgeon throw a scalpel or other sharp instrument across the room, until they have attended some sort of anger management course as a scrub nurse I will never hand them another sharp instrument again. If I was scrubbed and this happened I would be getting my scout nurse to bring in the team leader straight away, I would start handing off all my scalpel blades, sharp retractors, in fact all my instrument trays would go to my scout nurse to deny them access to any sort of metal instrument that could hurt someone. I would tell the TL that this surgeon is potentially going to harm a staff member and I no longer feel safe in this room. I would also call a code black (threat to staff safety) and treat it no different than a patient getting out of control.

This may sound a little drastic but I'm not going to stand there and let anyone get hurt because people cannot control their temper. This sort of behavior needs to be stopped as it happens.

allnurses Guide · Dec 5, 2008

I've seen one nurse throw chairs and act out in other angry ways.

steph

Scrubby · Dec 5, 2008

I can see a lot of doctors are under pressure. I'm happy to let them vent to me about it as long as it doesn't become personal and a verbal attack on myself or my fellow nursing staff.

Any doctor who wants to raise his voice at me will get nowhere. I will just turn my back on them and ignore them until I am spoken to in a calm and rational manner. I have had a doctor yell at me on the phone and I just hang up on them. They can complain to management all they like, I am not going to be bullied.

And if I ever witness or see a surgeon throw a scalpel or other metal instrument across the room, until they have attended some sort of anger management course as a scrub nurse I will never hand them another sharp instrument again. If I was scrubbed and this happened I would be getting my scout nurse to bring in the team leader straight away, I would start handing off all my scalpel blades, sharp retractors, in fact all my instrument trays would go to my scout nurse to deny them access to any sort of metal instrument that could hurt someone. I would tell the TL that this surgeon is potentially going to harm a staff member and I no longer feel safe in this room. I would also call a code black (threat to staff safety) and treat it no different than a patient getting out of control.

This may sound a little drastic but I'm not going to stand there and let anyone get hurt because people cannot control their temper. IMHO This sort of behavior needs to be dealt with as it happens, not after the surgery, not the next day because I do not trust management to take it seriously enough. I feel that by dealing with it as I described makes the issue more visible to other departments of the hospital, that it will force management to deal with it as it should be, not just to sweep it under the carpet with all the other problems.

Nurse2Doc2008 · Dec 6, 2008

I'm pretty sure that the same doctors who scream at nurses are the same ones who belittle residents/med students and even other attendings.

Also, as far as the doctors can do whatever they want to nurses and nurses can't do anything back, that may be true for attendings. However, as a medical student, and now as an intern, it's been made very clear to me that the nurses can be as rude as they want and we can't really say anything b/c our hospital values residents way less than it values nurses.

Finally, I think the idea of getting back at one another is kind of juvenile and just perpetuates bad relationships between doctors and nurses....like, it would be inappropriate for me to order q2 vitals just to **** off the nurse, just like it's inappropriate for the nurse to call me every 5 minutes to report normal vitals.

Just my two cents.

suanna · Dec 6, 2008

There is no excuse for abusive behavior but on the otherhand I have known at least 2 docs that had a reputation for tantrums that I love working with. There biggest problem was they expect a lot from the nursing staff and there are varying level of skill in every group of nurses. It was when the nurses were acting like "trained monkeys" and not thinking through thier actions that prompted the most outrageous behavior. Generaly if you earn thier respect by being good at your job you have little to worry about from most docs. (not all- there is still one I can't seem to get on the good side of).