I am really at a low point right now and need a reality check. I have worked as a phlebotomist at an urgent care for more than 5 years and I am 4 months away from graduating with my BSN. I have always tried to do the right thing for my patients and always gone the extra mile at work and school. In nursing school, they always say "do the right thing for your patient, no matter what" and "stand up to the doctor, be a patient advocate" but when it comes down to it, everybody looks at you like you're crazy. So now, 4 months of school left, I got laid off my job for doing the "right" thing for one of my patients.
Long story short: We got a special needs teenager who was a little agitated and needed a golf ball-sized abscess on his buttocks opened and drained. The doctor is pretty juvenile and was making fun of how the patient sounded, so I was already a little on point. I was setting up the bay for the procedure and asked the doctor what lidocaine/marcaine ratio he wanted to numb up the area and he tells me, "Nothing. It's too much trouble on this kid." I asked him what he meant, and he said that the kid wouldn't sit still and it would be easier just to slice it open and squeeze. I said, "It's the size of a golf ball and the kid is already in a lot of pain." (The patient barely let me touch it to put the EMLA cream on.) Nope, the doctor wasn't going to use anything. So I looked him dead in the eye and said, "Is that the standard of care for this procedure?" The doctor got irrate, said a bunch of things I'm not going to repeat, and ended it with "Whatever YOU want to do, doctor!!!" at me. I walked away, but five minutes later I heard him telling the MA to draw up the lidocaine/marcaine for the patient's procedure.
So, now I have no job and my family and friends are acting like I did the wrong thing and I should "never question the doctor!!!" I'm feeling a little betrayed, a little mad, and a whole lot sad. I'm wondering how this is going to affect my future as an RN; I was really hoping to get a great recommendation from this job--I guess I can kiss that goodbye...
Ultimately, my questions to the nursing community are: Was I wrong? Or what should I have done differently?
