Stupid questions/comments made by doctors!

Nurses General Nursing

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What kind of stupid questions have you been asked by a physician? You know, the kind that just make you want to scream. I had a patient the other day who was having big time mental status changes. I finally convinced the doctor that something wasn't right, and we needed to try to find out why. He ordered some labs. I called him with the results which included a high potassium, a low sodium, and a glucose over 300. The elderly patient had no history of diabetes. The physician called me and was asking me why the patient's glucose was high. Never mind the potassium, he was freaked out over the glucose. He kept asking me why it was high and kept stating that she had no history of diabetes. This doc is oriental, so his English is broken. Anyway, after the third time I said," I have no idea why the glucose is high. You're the doctor, you tell me." I could have just jumped through the phone and slapped him!! Don't you just love it when the docs ask you these kind of questions? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :confused: :confused:

This thread is sooo funny. I wish I had the nerve to print it out and pin it on our bulletin board at work. Maybe I will.....

I have one to share:

Last week we had to do a colonoscopy on a 400 lb. man. The anesthetist mentioned to the Dr. ahead of time that we would need to go a little lighter on the sedation d/t the potential for airway problems. The doctor said, "why do you think he'd have airway problems?" And he wasn't joking, either!

Whatever!!!

Amy :)

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Ever have this discussion? I have had patients who were terminally ill and DNR's who were in the last stages of life. After the patient expires, I will notify the attending physician of the death. The doctor replies: "Is that so?" "What happened?" :confused: :confused: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Beam me up Scotty!!!

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A doctor on our floor got mad at a nurse for starting an IV on his labor patient without permission. Never mind the written order for Nubain IV. When asked how he wanted the Nubain given, he said "IV, of course." We just looked at him. He didn't get it. Can we say "Power trip?"

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This one has to do with a dimwit doc (cardiothoracic surgen, ha!)

he had a patient on the table... patient was to have a mediastinoscopy... patient asks, before going to sleep " well doc, anybody die while you do this procedure before?" doc sez,"Oh I'd say 1 out of a 100, but I've done 99 good ones!" DOH!!!???*** :eek: what a dumb!!!

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I I had a doctor come out of a room once and tell me that a pt needed to void. I went into the room, and looked at the pt. (This pt wasn't mine, but I was helping out while her nurse was at lunch). The patient had a foley cath!!! I just about popped at the seams. I promptly went back out and told the doctor that the little tube inserted into her bladder was probably taking care of any voiding problem she may have been having! I had a good laugh over that one!! The doctor said, "I am sorry, I didn't notice." No kidding!! This doc is pretty easy going and a lot of fun to kid around with so he took it all in stride. But I still had a good laugh at his expense!!

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Years ago we admitted a lovely baby to our special care nursery for some respiratory observation. As our fellow began his exam, he said sadly the "poor baby has Down's". We looked at the baby and at the parents at the window, and asked the fellow if he had met the parents - the Oriental parents! The baby was fine, he was embarrassed, and we were in stitches.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

When my son had a shunt revision several years age, there was another child in the room. The other kid was a pt. of an older peds surgeon in our area, kind of grumpy to the nurses, at least.

I was sitting next to Juan reading when this doc came in the room, looked at his pt., then at me. He said the kid's name questioningly, I thought he thaought I was that child's mom, so I said, "No, I'm his", pointing to my son. (I was NOT dressed like a nurse, either!)

He promptly went into a small tirade about why, if there was a nurse in the room, she didn't have BOTH pts, it was just inefficient, blah, blah...

I wait'd for him to stop and told him I agreed totally with his complaint, but in this case, I was the MOM!!!:eek:

"Oh", says doc, and walks out. "Well she LOOKED like a nurse!" he said to the nurse standing outside the door snickering.

I asked her later if it was stamped on my forehead!:D

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Actually the doc with the foley incident is a great doc. He was covering this pt for another doc and this was the first day he had saw her. The other doc I am talking about is Oriental. His English can be atrocious at times, but he is usually pretty decent. I think he is one of those people who have to talk their "thoughts" out loud. :D :D A lot of these experiences have come over several years of nursing. I like to have fun with the docs, especially when I catch them saying silly stuff. Since we are a small hospital and have basically the same family docs forever, we develop quite good working relationship with them. I know how to approach each doc to get what I need/want for my patients. The docs also know which nurses' judgements they can trust, and whose they need to take with a grain of salt. I just like to use my sense of humor at work because it is the only thing that keeps me sane most days. If I didn't laugh at the little stuff, my day would be unbearable!!!

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Specializes in ER.

How about the doc who was called twice about a decreasing BP on a LOL, the nurse was concerned enough to stay in the room for 45min. On the third call doc says " Don't do anything and don't take her bp again until 6am"

Or the one who wanted to make applying an external fetal moniter an intervention that could not be initiated without an MD order. (I posted a previous thread on that one:( )

Or the doc who wrote me up because I gave two plain Tylenol instead of two T#3, per pt request, and I wrote it up as a telephone order rather than call at 2am.

Or when we had a lady with chest pain and a BP that went from 110/60 to 50/30 in 15min and the doc was called and the ONLY order I got was "transfer to ICU"

"Do you want me to do anything else?"

"No just transfer her" CLICK.

Well I am working this WE, will have more soon I am sure.

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i know this is an old thread, but it is funny but sad...scares me to think of how so many people unquestioningly trust doctors...we actually trust some of them with our lives, without ever stopping to question anything they do or say! :uhoh21:

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic Transplant Telemetry.

I still haven't gotten over this one!

Several months ago I had this little old man in for aspiration pneumonia, NPO because of dysphagia until speech could figure out what to do with him. D5NS going at 75 ml's/hr, pt with horrible lung fields, rhonchi everywhere and low urine output. What urine he had was very concentrated.

Called the intern, she wanted to know if I was concerned about the UOP or his breath sounds, I said both. No orders received.

Called numerous times throughout the night. Finally the R2 comes to see the patient. Before he listens to breath sounds he asks me what I heard. I say rhonchi, and by this time you don't need a stethoscope. He tells me to stop the fluids. When I ask if I can give him some lasix he says no, his code status allows for intubation, if we have to we will go with that. What??????

Just after he leaves the floor the intern shows up, says that she could hear his resps from the hall. I ask again for lasix, she walks past the room again, comes back and orders 10mg lasix IV.

Good news, the patient put out 500mls, was breathing easier if not well, and actually got a little bit of sleep.

New interns started yesterday. Even though we only have internal med residents at the hospital I'm at now I still dread going back on Saturday.

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