I'm very curious. I'm sure we've all been there. We've dealt with doctors from all spectrum and mindsets. Most are very good at their jobs and have sound ideas!
But sometimes docs just say and do the craziest things
My example: at my last LTC facility I had one doctor seriously outright refuse/fight giving and prescribing pain meds (for patients who really, really needed it/were on vents/dying) because he honestly believed that these residents who had been stuck in a bed for years were going to get better and go out to buy/smoke crack cocaine.
According to him "prescribing narcotics leads to methadone and crack usage." These poor residents have been here for years taking the same medications and pain meds for years...just WHAT?
I was in a Level 1 trauma, in a Level 2 facility, when this completely arrogant SOB pulmonologist and I got into a screaming match over something I don't remember what but I do know I questioned something he told me to do anyway he flipped and threw an IV pole at me. When it was done I politely in a loud voice told him he would be walking with a pole up his butt, cleaned it up as actual words were not PG lol, I somehow became his favorite nurse and he would only talk to me to give orders. I still laugh.
He's lucky. A whole lot of nurses would have called security on him or worse.
Recently had a pt with a low potassium. Paged the MD expecting him to enter an order to replete it. Instead, I get a phone call from him asking me what a normal potassium level is. I told him and he told me how much K to order. Then I had to enter the order. I gave the pt the K as ordered, so I suppose it's all good. Just the same, I'd never worked with this physician before, and I am not impressed with him. At all.
Is why I'm thankful we had a potassium & magnesium protocol if their creatinine was under a certain level. Covered just about everyone but dialysis patients
I work at a hospital with a lot of residents who probably need more supervision. I had a patient with a BP of 195/100 or something close to that. The admitting diagnosis was Hypertensive Crisis. The patient was prescribed 6.25 of coreg bid. This didn't touch the blood pressure of course. I called the resident and asked for a prn and if he wanted to up the dosage of coreg or add a second med. He didn't change the coreg, he wrote an order for NS at 100/hr, and gave me prn hydralazine for a bp of 215/110. Um, what?!
LOL! Love this thread. After 40+ years, I've got a few goodies too.
MD calls all panicked when I was IC/EH manager. A patient of his in ICU was found to have tetorifice and he wanted all the staff to have tetorifice boosters because they 'might get it'. Explained it was not communicable person to person. Long pause and then tiny voice saying 'Never mind'.
MD ordered only Tylenol for terminal CA patient in final stages. Why? 'They might get addicted' ?????
MD not discharging elderly woman home after fall. (Pt uninjured, living on own, lucid, refusing nursing home.) Why? 'She might fall again'. Well, yes, she might. But he might get hit by a car crossing the street to his office, does this mean he has to give up his office practice? We can't swaddled them in cotton!
Called one of our docs in the middle of the night for a new admit, known diabetic, who had not be given any insulin during his 12 hours in the ER. As you can imagine, his blood sugar was way up and he was feeling like crap. This is around 2 in the am. Call the doc, doc answers, I explain, he gives appropriate orders, I carry out said orders and move on with my shift. At 6am my phone rings, it's the doc. He says "Did you call me last night" Me: Yes, I did; on Rm whatever. Him "Okay good, did I give you orders?" Me: Yes, you did. Orders for insulin for hyperglycemia. Worked beautifully, his BS is normal now. Him "Oh, good. I had the weirdest dream and didn't know if I gave real orders or dream orders."
Specializes in Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine.
I had a patient die soon after becoming an NP. Now mind you, I'd been pronouncing patients as an RN for 6 years and never been questioned. Told MD.
MD: Get an EKG.
Me: He was on a monitor. It flatlined. No pulse. No respirations.
MD: Well, did you try CPR?
Me: DNR/DNI. Nope. No CPR.
MD: Well, get the EKG anyway. We have to be sure.
Me: Nope. No need. He's really dead.
MD: I'm the doctor. Get the EKG.
Me: Nope. He's dead.
MD: I gave you an order.
Me: Well...
MD who was sitting next to me at the nurse's station takes phone: "Hi Doogie, if you want the EKG, come up and get it yourself. He's dead as a doornail."
I just had a physician covering for our hospitalist service over the weekend discontinue my patients antibiotics that they were supposed to be on for three weeks and when I questioned him about it, he asked, "what was he on it for?" And when I told him what for and that infectious disease had ordered it he asked me to reorder it for him lol
Had a patient come in with hyperkalemia and was going to need dialysis, wasn't currently on dialysis and so didn't have access. Didn't seem emergent and renal was swamped so they decided to hold off until the following morning. Throughout my nightshift he progressively looked worse. Finally, he goes into a junctional rhythm in the 30s. I literally had him hooked up to the crash cart when the resident called back. She tried to tell me that since his BP was ok they were ok with that. I used some very assertive language and told her that I was not, and her attending wouldn't be either.
Where to begin? My patient, who was totally oriented was waiting for the doc to come see her. As the day passed with no doc, I looked in the chart and saw he had written aphis daily note. I checked with the patient and she assured me no doc had seen her. I paged the doc. He said, "I don't have time to see EVERYONE today, but I wrote a note to cover myself" um, can you say fraud?
m favorite thing they say is, "let's watch him/her overnight'. AKA I'm too lazy to do anything about your issue
actually, my real favorite is 'this is my patient, don't question me'. No no no no. This is our patient and I'll make your life miserable if you don't listen to me and respect my opinion and trust my gut!
Quite a few years ago, one evening there were two of us RN's working in the PACU, with 3 OR's running and we had 4 pts in the PACU. The anesthesiologist working with us that night decided to bring us a kidney transplant (had transplanted earlier that day and was not putting out urine so they went back to the OR to see what was wrong) instead of going straight back to the PICU, where the pt had come from. When we voiced our concern over our RN to patient ratio/acuity, he stated to me, "Let me go get my skirt on and come back and help you". Needless to say this was overheard and he was promptly pulled into HR for 'debriefing and counseling'.
I told him and he told me how much K to order. Then I had to enter the order. 
I gave the pt the K as ordered, so I suppose it's all good. Just the same, I'd never worked with this physician before, and I am not impressed with him. At all.
Horseshoe, BSN, RN
5,879 Posts
He's lucky. A whole lot of nurses would have called security on him or worse.