Have you been injured by a doctor?

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 28, 2005

years ago (27 actually) i watched a surgeon chase my preceptor down the hall with a loaded bedpan, trying to throw it at her. my ex-husband actually was drenched by the contents of a bedpan launched by a surgeon. (come to think of it, i wish i'd remembered that mental picture when going through the divorce!:chuckle )

[color=#4b0082]i've seen a nurse bashed in the face with a chart (the pulmonolgist was trying to hit the surgeon, hit the nurse by accident on the backswing. or was it the surgeon trying to hit the pulmonologist? it's been awhile.) same surgeon threw a bucket of ice at the anesthesiologist in the or. i happened to be witness to the aftermath of that . . . i was bringing a patient back to the or for bleeding -- one of those occaisions when things were so dire they actually let a "dirty" icu nurse help move the patient into the room and onto the table. on the way back to the icu, i was passing by the next room when the dripping anesthesiologist stumbled out into the hall . . . followed by the surgeon who then wanted to drag me into it to "show this bozo how to do a cardiac output!"

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[color=#4b0082]saw a surgeon throw contaminated sharps at a nurse -- he didn't like the way the code was going.

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[color=#4b0082]had an intern shove a bicarb needle clear through my left hand, although i think that was an accident.

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[color=#4b0082]saw a nephrologist deck a cardiologist once. i'm not sure why, but i certainly understand the impulse. i wanted to deck that cardiologist on more than one occaision . . . like the time he pulled my skirt off me. (he was yanking on it to get my attention while i was on the phone.)

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[color=#4b0082]ruby (gee, i've been around a long time!)

cannoli · Apr 28, 2005

Two doctors were talking in the nurses station and I went around them at the desk and the doctor from India hit me in the back with his elbow, very hard, very painfully, and I think it was done very deliberately, why I have no idea. I mentioned it to someone else later and they said that they didn't doubt one bit that it was deliberate. I can't stand that doctor, can't understand him and he can be verbally abusive as well as I found out over the phone one day.

Have heard a lot of verbal abuse over the years.

Lanceman · Apr 28, 2005

If anyone ever physically touches you or hits you with a thrown object you have every right to call the police and have them arrested for assault. I wouldn't be thinking of a lawsuit, I would be too happy seeing them taken out of the hospital in handcuffs after I agreed to press charges :) To be honest if someone threw something or hit me out of anger the police wouldn't be able to get there fast enough, there would already be a brawl in progress......

Laurlaur · Apr 28, 2005

To me this thread discredits the mostly decent people docs are. Many that I work with are extremely nice people and are "normal" just like most nurses, are there to do their best for the patients (like most of us) and respect their co-workers whoever they are. Maybe I'm just lucky but I work in an environment where people are very tolerant of each other.

JVanRN · Apr 28, 2005

In my experience most of the doctors I have worked with have been extremely cool and down to earth. The "Butthead ones" mainly were the ones that acted like the nurses were just in general beneath them, like they were just above everyone. But even they are few and far in between. I have seen a couple slam a chart on the table or slam the phone down, but not becuase they were mad at a nurse necessarily. Often it was another Dr on the case. I have really only seen this with one or 2 doctors that are renounded buttheads.

Doctor's are human like anyone else and I imagine thier job gets VERY stressful, but to physically assult someone is not an excuse. This would not be tolerated at the hospital I work at. They kiss Dr's butts but not that much. Now I have seen other nurses assult each other...but not often thank goodness.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Apr 28, 2005

Change is occuring:

Abusive doctors, stress drive nurses out

Changing Physican Behavior

Cassinia · Apr 28, 2005

I've been nailed by an md twice, two different ones. One, a female oncologist got me when she threw the chart at me. It was kind of common place at one place I worked for mds to throw charts. When I started at my last job the first time a doctor, really nice guy, turned in his chair and handed me his chart, I flinched.

The second doctor, male urologist, had a snit because the right kind of bandage scissors weren't in the room when he did the dressing. He got himself with the scissors first then dropped them down and stuck me as they continued to fall just missing the patient. I had a student nurse with me at the time and after the doctor left the room and I went to clean the wound, she asked me about what happened. By this time, I'm welled seasoned, I just shrugged and said he was having an off day.

Edit: Of coorifice, this doesn't include all the times the mds pulled my hair. My hair comes to my butt and I wear it braided down my back.

labornurse · Apr 28, 2005

I have never been assulted by an MD, (there isn't one in the facility I work who would dare), but I have had a CRNA throw things at me when the epidural wasn't going the way he wanted. It the same thing kept happening to other nurses too until we got together and told him that the next time we would be charging him with assult and sueing for damages. He left shortly after that.