I can barely even breathe I am just outraged and upset and everything else. I shadowed in ob/gyn (my choice for working after graduation, if I am so lucky) and lucked out shadowing an amazing team of nurses. Its a big downtown hospital, very busy. Anyway, the backstory is that a first time mom was getting in induction, did not like her perinatologist, who is known to frankly be a big jerk and is legendary for being really rude, disruptive and awful to the nurses, paitents, other drs (and I mean other dr's saying they refuse to work with this dr anymore or refer their perinatologist cases onwards).
SO,the patient was literally crying to not have to see dr ------- again, and the nurse said she had no choice but would be there thru it all, helping and coaching (it was really amazing to see her caring bedside manner!)
Etc etc I ASSUME the nurse waited til the last minute to call the dr, the high risk dr whizzes in, I should say.. STORMS IN SCREAMING "wHO IS HAVING A BABY AND HOW DARE YOU NOT TELL ME"
does not say or look at the patient, who bursts into huge sobbing tears.
at this particular hospital, they handle lots of serious high risk (which this patient was not, just had the misfortune of selecting this dr by accident) so in comes the hi risk patient team.
I at this point am behind the nurse (out of the way yet involved by looking) when the dr stormed in slamming stuff. Literally screaming.
delivery happens. Perfect delivery, mom and baby fine, great.
Dr then proceeds to stitch up the patient, the dr is still VERY IRATE and yells at the nurse who is holding a sponge says "Give it to me then if you cant hold it right" the nurse sarcastically says "ok dr X, I am gonna tell you right now I wont take this tonite"
and here is where I come in.
The dr takes the SPONGE filled with blood out of her hands and throws it down, BUT THE SPONGE HITS ME IN THE ARM and splashes BLOOD ON ME
EVERYONE started arguing. The patient was crying again, thinking something was happening to HER
I am STUNNED.
no one apologized and the dr didnt even LOOK at me. The other nurses were horrorfied on my behalf. I do NOT know what to do.
Maybe nursing is NOT for me. This is not how another human should be treated. And get this, the PATIENT who just had a baby and getting stiched up says "EXCUSE ME, if you want to argue you do it outside of THIS ROOM, do you understand me?"
she was the coolest out of them all.
If this is how high flying peri's treat their nurses , this is not my field, I refuse to be talked to like this and I refuse to have wet fresh blood flung at me.
I quit. This is enough. I am switching to OT school. Done
This thread is both very affirming and very disturbing. Affirming because people are willing to stand up to this unprofessional, hostile, perhaps illegal behavior and report it. Disturbing because others are afraid to stand up. There are cases in the news today, read them, where people who have stood up in similar medical cases are paying heavy prices. Its about power. At some point, in cases like the one described, one must decide whether one is part of the problem or part of the solution. People who will remain passive in situations like the one described share guilt with the unprofessional doctor. They're part of the problem. They have no excuse. I'm just gratified to see so many who are willing to take the risk, perhaps of even getting fired, and standing up for what is right.
Specializes in Long term care, med surg, pediatrics, OB.
You Go Girl!!!! I totally agree with the other posts that with your ability to not have your "livelihood" looming over your head, you stepped up for the team and we all appreciate that more that you know. Being a new nurse and working between med surg and OB in a rural hospital we do at times have heated problems in the L&D rooms. After an incident we are encouraged to talk about it to our manager, who is always understanding, and the we fill out a quality assessment tool which is discussed with the physician involved by the manager. We have had success in ironing out some of those inappropriate behaviors and I know that most of the regular OB nurses where I work would in fact report the physician no matter the consequences. We are here for our patients and without them none of us would be employed. It's different in bigger hospitals I assume, but when you are in a small tight knit hospital you DO NOT want to be "one of those" MD's believe me. It's sincerely a breath of fresh air to hear your story, thank you for sharing and I hope I can be as assertive as you if any similar(god forbid) situation should arise.
I can barely even breathe I am just outraged and upset and everything else. I shadowed in ob/gyn (my choice for working after graduation, if I am so lucky) and lucked out shadowing an amazing team of nurses. Its a big downtown hospital, very busy. Anyway, the backstory is that a first time mom was getting in induction, did not like her perinatologist, who is known to frankly be a big jerk and is legendary for being really rude, disruptive and awful to the nurses, paitents, other drs (and I mean other dr's saying they refuse to work with this dr anymore or refer their perinatologist cases onwards).
SO,the patient was literally crying to not have to see dr ------- again, and the nurse said she had no choice but would be there thru it all, helping and coaching (it was really amazing to see her caring bedside manner!)
Etc etc I ASSUME the nurse waited til the last minute to call the dr, the high risk dr whizzes in, I should say.. STORMS IN SCREAMING "wHO IS HAVING A BABY AND HOW DARE YOU NOT TELL ME"
does not say or look at the patient, who bursts into huge sobbing tears.
at this particular hospital, they handle lots of serious high risk (which this patient was not, just had the misfortune of selecting this dr by accident) so in comes the hi risk patient team.
I at this point am behind the nurse (out of the way yet involved by looking) when the dr stormed in slamming stuff. Literally screaming.
delivery happens. Perfect delivery, mom and baby fine, great.
Dr then proceeds to stitch up the patient, the dr is still VERY IRATE and yells at the nurse who is holding a sponge says "Give it to me then if you cant hold it right" the nurse sarcastically says "ok dr X, I am gonna tell you right now I wont take this tonite"
and here is where I come in.
The dr takes the SPONGE filled with blood out of her hands and throws it down, BUT THE SPONGE HITS ME IN THE ARM and splashes BLOOD ON ME
EVERYONE started arguing. The patient was crying again, thinking something was happening to HER
I am STUNNED.
no one apologized and the dr didnt even LOOK at me. The other nurses were horrorfied on my behalf. I do NOT know what to do.
Maybe nursing is NOT for me. This is not how another human should be treated. And get this, the PATIENT who just had a baby and getting stiched up says "EXCUSE ME, if you want to argue you do it outside of THIS ROOM, do you understand me?"
she was the coolest out of them all.
If this is how high flying peri's treat their nurses , this is not my field, I refuse to be talked to like this and I refuse to have wet fresh blood flung at me.
I quit. This is enough. I am switching to OT school. Done
now I get to see if I get HIV or hep C right
THANKS FOR NOTHING
hope that doc was reprimanded by the medical director, if not removed from the hospital for that. Removal of hospital privileges would be more approrpriate - how about assault charge by you??? should NEVER be tolerated, never never never. How did the hospital handle it? What about the hospital nursing supervisor on at that time? Wow. Hope all is ok w/ that blood exposure.
so to "stand up" against lateral violence (this case was extreme i understand) would mean sacraficing not only your job, but possibly your entire livlihood. of course you cannot do this. you must feed your family, you love your patients, you keep your head down. you try.
. . . . ..
i dont need to keep my head down so i dont rock the boat, because i have no fear of the future of my employement.
ok- this whole thread is getting me thinking. i think this post hit what most of why so many people 'keep there heads down" because of fear of losing their jobs.
when there is a person on a rampage, verbal abuse or anger problems. that is not the time to keep your head down- the situation has to be resolved and not done by brooming under the carpet-that gives the person full clearance to do again and again.
while this one incident is way extreme sounds like the person has a history of this and this is where keeping heads down has led to. most of the time there is a history of such abuse and problems. the pattern won't stop until some one pulls there head out of their *&&. when there is history basically everyone knows about it: co-workers, underlindings and also the people above. but nothing is done until management see the underlings/co-workers complain, refuse to work with, etc then management will do something b/c that person's behavior is a liability on so many levels
as far as the job aspect: what if you lose your job, fired or . . .9insert your own thought) do you really want to work with that behavior, work at a place that allows it and live with being abused? yes the market is in the rank but there are still jobs out there- ie if the unemployment rate is reported at 10, 12 or 13% that means 87to 90% are still employed.
still keeping in mind this is a extreme case, i am getting the impression others are 'waiting for this' what are suppose to tell people in abusive situations? and people are putting up with is at work?? duh something is work with 'putting your head down. why would you put up with this any longer then it takes to find another job?
Thanks for sharing your experience. I just want to commend your bold step to take action regarding what the jerk did. If only nurses will learn to address issues like this, I think there will be less of this nonsence happening. Anyway, I will be waiting for the outcome. Way to go!!! huhu:)
Wow! You are totally inspiring! I am a nursing student, second degree as well. Thankfully I have not experienced anything like that. I am inspired that you take life by the balls and make it exactly what you want! Woohoo!
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
greenykilt I think I have found my new calling! I have a meeting next week (thanks to husband who can pull strings) to help facilitate somekind of committee or organization to stop/educate this absurd medical lateral violence!
The dr I originally wrote about has been placed on a leave because I did in fact report her to the necessary people.
She made the very unfortunate choice (for her) in assuming that you, like probably most of your classmates, was of lesser status in her worldview, which is a necessary component of the abuser/victim relationship. I pray that what you are doing has a ripple effect. Thank you so much for taking this issue on. Even though your husband's position there is making this possible for you, it doesn't mean there will be no backlash. Best to you.
I know that everyone is so excited by all of this but I know that when I was a student if we were to go and confront a doctor at her place of employment like the OP we would have been in deep poop. Has nursing school really changed that much?
1. Remove instrument/objects immediately from them. Unless there is emergency bleeding that needs to be fixed right now they will not get another instrument if I'm scrubbed. If I'm circulating I'll contaminate the whole set up and yes even push it out the door away from them. We can always get another sterile set up if we have to and x-ray. This will take time but I am not going to allow someone to be hurt because a surgeon can't handle themselves.
2. Call a code black (personal threat). Get security in there immediatley.
3. If it's a junior surgeon get the senior registrar in to finish the case. If it's a consultant then call the head of surgery in to finish the case.
4. Incident report
5. Report this as a risk to the hospital's risk management department. Because sometimes incident reports get swept under the rug.
6. Inform my nursing union and get them involved.
7. If someone has been physically harmed file a police report.
8. Refuse to work with this person again until every person in the room has had a letter of apology and they have undergone some sort of behavioural management.
Awesome reply! Don't be a victim.
Isn't an incident report mandatory anyway at a hospital, when a health care worker is exposed to bodily fluids?
FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I
3,619 Posts
Great, and good for you. No nurse should have to take that from any nasty doc. They have much too much power and a lot of them have nasty attitudes.