Doctors treat us like...

[U2BCool]

I work in a small suburban hospital as a RN. I work 2-3 shifts week per diem on a medical floor. I have a ton of experience. I choose to be a floor nurse so I could spend more time with my disabled child and other children before they forgot who their mommy was.

I cannot believe how bad the physicians at our facility treat the nurses. We have a very knowledgeable and caring nursing staff. I cannot tell you how may times we cover these doctor's bums when they forget orders or write incorrect orders. When we call after hours doctors are irritated and state rude comments.

They prescribe ridiculous amounts of pain medications for minor illnesses, because our high addict population loves them and will complain if they do not get them.

They admit anything and everything to boost hospital census and waste so much money because they refuse to speak of anything relating to continuum of care or look into options such as home health. A foot (not severe) infection will stay 8+ weeks for antibiotics and Q2H dilaudid ( We make addicts- and then throw them out).

When you ask a question (in the most positive nicest way possible) they roll their eyes or complain they do not have the time to talk.

I came from a university hospital system and never had to work in such a negative environment when working with physicians.

We send our Director/Manager numerous emails and letters. They know it is a problem and keep telling us they are keeping track of the problem and are trying to get the Medical Director to rectify the situation.

How does one take a professional approach to this problem? I love working with my fellow nurses and do not want to change facilities, I want to make the environment we work in better. I like my Nursing Director ,but she will not get firm with people and she will not put any pressure up the organizational chart.

Ideas?

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

If that's the culture in your facility, I think all you can do about it is leave. Obviously, if upper management cared about the nurses, there would be progressive discipline programs in place for physicians who treated nurses badly. I worked in a Magnet hospital as a CNA and it was like that - the doctors were perfectly professional with the nurses at all times. However, last night, a coworker of mine at the place I work now had trouble getting a foley in a guy with BPH and the guy ended up bleeding profusely out of his member. We called the doctor - who not only never called us back, but actually CALLED THE HOUSE SUPERVISOR to complain about us calling him in the middle of the night and tried to get that nurse written up for calling him.

If a place tolerates that kind of behavior like my hospital does, obviously no one's going to care enough about nurses to listen for a second to what you think or how you feel. It just is what it is. If you try to make things better and get on the bad side of these physicians that essentially run the hospital, you will probably get fired because they will put pressure on your manager to find reasons to get rid of you, or at least they will try to make your life hell. If you want to stay where you work now, I think the best idea is to keep your mouth shut and not make any waves. You are just one person and you will not succeed in changing an entire workplaces' culture by yourself.

The only thing I can think of that you could possibly do is make an anonymous report to the local media and see if they can run a story on abuse of nurses by physicians in the hospital, but for the love of your job, if you give an interview make sure they blur out your image and distort your voice.

[sunmaidliz]

Sounds like the culture and politics of your facility. You can play the game be the most pleasant nurse and kiss their rears and protect your paycheck or you can move on. We are the workhorses of the medical field. We dont get a say in how that field gets plowed.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

If those patients are having such long stays & inappropriate treatment - it won't be a long-term problem because your organization will go broke. Srsly. There is no way this will be approved for payment.

Please take a look at your organization's policy & procedure for dealing with disruptive physicians. If you are JC accredited, there has to be one. If not, review the administrative policies for any relevant ones. At the very least, you should be filing 'adverse' or 'incident' reports whenever anyone is overtly disrespectful - particularly if it is in front of a patient or affects quality or safety.

It takes much more courage to take action than remain silent. For a shining example - please review our "Winkler County" case (Texas Nurses Association: Winkler County Nurses History ) We are all so proud of Anne & Vickie. This case triggered state legislation to protect nurse whistleblowers in the future.