Pt had new dx paralytic ileus. Attending doc says NG low intermittent suction. Then he decides hmmm pt has a peg I wonder if you can suction from there instead of inserting NG. He asks me to find out - call GI unit - find out if allowed or possible.
So I call GI and General systems ICU, they say - neat idea never heard of it, never done it.
So I'm told to page the surgeon who inserted the peg.
WELL BIG MISTAKE
Surgeon calls back, he's calling from the hospital. I tell him very POLITELY about the pt para ileus, the peg he put in and i ask NICELY "the attending is wondering if we can use the peg for low inter. suction?"
wellllllll
he says in a very RUDE and CONDESCENDING MANNER
"first of all, I am not on call, I was just being nice answering this page"
"i would only answer this question if the attending doc is on the other line, you are JUST A NURSE"
I WAS BEAT RED I can't even remember the rest of it. All I could remember was YOU ARE JUST A NURSE. What the heck! I was calling for clinical expertise information as I could not find it elsewhere! I did not know what to say, the only words that came out of my mouth were "I'm sorry".
I feel so humiliated! I wanted to stand up for myself but I was in such awe.
What do you do/say in these situations where a doctor berrates you? Or are you just supposed to swallow it all and apologize? What would you do?
I probably would have mumbled an "excuse me" and repeated that the other doc wanted me to call.
I get lots of attitude from docs. Since I work in LTC, the primary doc is always having us call the cardioligist, endo, gastro, etc for him about certain issues or orders.
Pt had new dx paralytic ileus. Attending doc says NG low intermittent suction. Then he decides hmmm pt has a peg I wonder if you can suction from there instead of inserting NG. He asks he to find out - call GI unit - find out if allowed or possible.
So I call GI and General systems ICU, they say - neat idea never heard of it, never done it.
So I'm told to page the surgeon who inserted the peg.
WELL BIG MISTAKE
Surgeon calls back, he's calling from the hospital. I tell him very POLITELY about the pt para ileus, the peg he put in and i ask NICELY "the attending is wondering if we can use the peg for low inter. suction?"
wellllllll
he says in a very RUDE and CONDESCENDING MANNER
"first of all, I am not on call, I was just being nice answering this page"
"i would only answer this question if the attending doc is on the other line, you are JUST A NURSE"
I WAS BEAT RED I can't even remember the rest of it. All I could remember was YOU ARE JUST A NURSE. What the heck! I was calling for clinical expertise information as I could not find it elsewhere! I did not know what to say, the only words that came out of my mouth were "I'm sorry".
I feel so humiliated! I wanted to stand up for myself but I was in such awe.
What do you do/say in these situations where a doctor berrates you? Or are you just supposed to swallow it all and apologize? What would you do?
OMgosh! Better you than me...I would have been upset. Our MDs and PA's don't talk to us this way. Altho, I've only called a PA once who wasn't on call...and she was very nice...I would have been like you....in shock...but I would have said something to boot. Glad you took the call and not me. What a real jerk. We're not JUST NURSES....I hate when people degrade like that. So sad.
We have a new PA at on our who has a degrading personality to woman. AS well as he can be rude sometimes. I haven't had any problems with him. I treat him with kid gloves and stay away from him if I can help it when he's on the floor. Several nurses have filed complaints against him to the Cheif Transplant MD. We'll see what happens.
Uhggg, i hate drs who think their time is more important that someone elses. And i mean that both as a patient and a nurse. He's an ars. I would have called the primary back and told them to call him unless they wanted me to write a consult, and then we'd get an answer.
I am so sorry this physician was so rude to you. I agree with everyone, you have no reason to feel "sorry." Only this doctor does. Please, write exactly what transpired in the notes so this physician will be pegged as noncooperative, and pass along what happened to your attending, the NM, and NEVER give him a consult unless specifically written for him.
thankyou very much everyone for your responses! that's exactly what i wanted to hear. i'm not that kind of person that lets people walk all over them outside of work.. but in this situation i was totally floored because i've never encountered someone talking my profession down.
I have a tendency to be sarcastic, last time a Doc talked to me like that I said very clearly and very slowly " Yea thanks alot for all your help Doc we all really appreciate the attitude" and I hung up. No further problems with this Doc.
But there are still plenty of a-holes that don't even understand when they are being ridiculed.
Quite frankly, the MDs should be talking one to one with each other.
But Good Luck getting them to do so.
On my current assignment, I have to carry a phone. One day last week, during one shift, I received over 37 phone calls, the vast majority of them useless wastes of my time, that interrupted me being to properly care for my patients. As an example:
MD writes an order for a med with an out of normal dosage. He writes no reason for the use of the med and there is nothing in the current history of the patient to indicate what the intentions are. PharmD (which is a DR and is fully capable of writing orders) calls the nurse to tell her to call the MD and ask for a substitution. Nurse calls MD to relay message to his nurse (as he is not available). MD gets ticked with his nurse, and has her reiterate the order, but still gives no reason for the odd order. His nurse calls hospital nurse who calls PharmD, who still will not dispense drug and requests substitution. Unit nurse calls MD nurse.....etc. etc.
Now why the h#$% can't these two fools call each other directly and have their peeing match in person? Because some fool thinks that nurses should be medical secretarial help rather than valuing our time and skills.
How many times does an MD get ticked at slow turn around in reading of xrays and gripe at the nurse rather than calling the radiologist (who is fellow md) himself? Why do we take the heat for two MDs sniping at each other, when they should be sniping at each other?
Because hospitals see their time as valuable and their comfort is valuable.
what a pig, there a dying bread Dr's with that attitude which is good. if i wasnt in to much shock i think i would of come out with something sacastic in reply. it would get you in trouble but it would of felt good. sometimes you've got to weight up the pros and cons
Next time if any attending asks you to write an order for a GI consult for a new patient, and sometimes they have no preference and don't specify who, well...then you'll know which group you can exclude from that list of choices
Hopefully you would have said "Dr regardless of my title I was asking you for your professional opinion as a favor to the attending. I will be more than happy to tell him you are unable to give it and will document this conversation in the patients medical record." "Irregardless" is not a proper word and it may give him more ammunition against you. Aside from the grammar, where do these physicians get off talking to anyone that way. This doctor has mental health issues (which are not your problem) and needs someone to look down on. He picks on nurses because he thinks they can't or won't fight back. I bet he would never speak to a fellow physician or the CEO like that. It just shows what a weak, stupid twit he is. One possible response is, "Excuse me? I am nurse, not "just a nurse" and I was carrying out a request from the attending physician. I will pass your message along to him. I also want to let you know, your comment was totally inappropriate and I don't tolerate people speaking to me like that. You will hear more about this." (Of course, you never think of these things at the time.) Then, submit a QCC to your manager and if you think he/she won't follow up, send a copy to HR, the CEO, and the medical director. Most hospitals don't tolerate that type of thing anymore, at least not in this area.
Seeing as you are being technical...Irregardless is actually a word...
Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.
CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN
3,734 Posts
I probably would have mumbled an "excuse me" and repeated that the other doc wanted me to call.
I get lots of attitude from docs. Since I work in LTC, the primary doc is always having us call the cardioligist, endo, gastro, etc for him about certain issues or orders.