:balloons:Anyone have an incident like this happen?
Worked a code from 0700 till 0930 (she coded 3 times), then came out to find a doctor waiting for me at the nurses station. He had a chart in his hand, and asked if a certain 0800 medication had been given. I had to tell him no. He proceeded to run his finger down the order page and READ it to me.
"See, here, I said to give it at 0800, 1200, and 1600."
"Yes, sir, and I apologize. I've been a bit tied up."
"Oh really? Tied up doing what exactly?"
"Chest compressions."
"Oh, well, that's acceptable."
I could not help but think, well, I sure as hell HOPE SO!
I then turned on the charm and told him I would go right then and give the meds, and could I do anything else while I was at it? He blinked at me a couple times and said, "Do you mind giving him the rest of his morning meds?"
"Not at all, anything else?"
"No, no, you just have a good day."
After I gave the meds, I returned to the nurses station to find I had an audience. Come to find out, this doctor was notorious for biting heads off and writing up nurses for little of nothing, and I was the first one he had not done it to. Anything like this happen to anyone else?
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I was a medication nurse at a small psychiatric hospital last year during the 3pm to 11pm shift, and we accepted new admits 24 hours a day. A woman with psychosis and bipolar was admitted to our crisis stabilization unit at 9:30pm and, of course, I had to call the on-call psychiatrist to verify orders. He also happened to be this patient's attending physician.
"What the hell are you doing waking me up at this time of night!" he screamed.
"Sir," I replied. "You're a doctor, so expect to be called at certain times of the night. If you don't like to be on-call, then it is time for you to find another profession."
He lowered the tone of his voice, and calmly gave the admitting orders for his patient.
We have an anesthesiologist who is notorious for his bad attitude. One day, I got a post-op neck biopsy back from the OR. As they rolled her into the room, the anesthesiologist's first words were "I hate the way you people set up your monitors; you always do it wrong." I didn't respond since I was getting my patient settled. He went on "Look, I need to show you how this is totally wrong." I had the tram in my hand to connect her to the central monitor, and this guy tried to take it from me, just to show me what "you people" were doing wrong!
I held onto the tram, and firmly said to him "I'm sorry. Sally is my priority right now. Once I get her settled and you've given report, I'd be happy to discuss the monitor with you. Until then, let go of my equipment." The look on his face was priceless.
I figured it was over, but then he started to walk away without giving report. I called him back and told him that, per policy, he was to talk to an attending or NP. He starting muttering about "you people always making trouble" and "I had the same problem just last week with you people." I smiled wide as I reminded him that I was the one, just last week, who had had this same problem with him, and that, no, the policy hadn't changed since then.
I've never had a problem with him since. He actually smiled and said hello last time I saw him.
Probably not the best technique in communicating on my part...However, about 15 years ago...Dr. L. was known for using multiple strings of profanity everytime he was called at night. ("Maybe if you weren't so GD stupid, you would know that...") Being a steady night nurse at the time, I knew this. I developed a strategy of getting him on MY side. When he'd return the call, I'd say, "You gotta help me. These dumb a** residents don't know what they're doing, and they're gonna kill your patient." He'd say, "J****C*****, Thank God you called me!" And then he'd say a few more foul lines about the residents, and give appropriate orders. He was like 70 years old. The other nurses would laugh and laugh. They'd always make me call him. Whoever started this thread rocks!! Memories...
Had the secretary page a cardiologist when my patient's heart rate went down to 36 while on Cardizem. I ran down to turn off the drip and by the time I got back to the desk, he had already called back and got mad that I wasn't RIGHT there to take the call. He hung up. It took the next 45 minutes for him to call back. Finally, I told the answering service, tell him I am documenting every call and the patients heart rate is in the 40's. He called right back.
rnmomtobe2010
1,051 Posts
This is soooooo funny!!!!