Has anyone here ever put a doctor in their place?

[Lachrymologist]

I keep reading here that nurses are constantly walked on and berated by doctors. That doctors seem to have a God complex and see themselves as better and all omniscient as opposed to the nurses who they seem to percieve as lowly and worthless. Well, has anyone here ever stood up to a doctor thats been treating them like dirt? If so, what took place and were the consequences good or bad?

[wildmountainchild]

I used to volunteer as an EMT at a medical clinic in a national park. I loved it there and had a great time with the nurses. I would also use the clinic when I was ill. I came in one day with a UTI, got checked out by the nurse (BP, HP, temp, weight, complaint, etc) and then sent to see the doc.

Now, I have had UTI's forever, am very familiar with thier symtoms and what happens when you go to the clinic to get antibiotics. The first thing Dr. L did was to listen to my "lungs". I thought this was a bit strange as I was in for a UTI and if he was doing any type of exam it should have been to see if my kidneys were sore.

So, he goes in for a listen and puts the head of the stethescope directly on my nipple. I have D cups and was wearing a tank top, so there was no way he made any kind of mistake. I looked up and asked him "How are you going to hear my lungs through my nipple?" He didn't say anything but quickly finished the exam.

Now, everytime I see him at the clinic (which is rarely as I don't volunteer there anymore) I always yell out "Hey Dr. L! The doctor who listens to your lungs through your nipple!!!".

Sure it 's a bit passive aggressive ( I should have filed a formal complaint) but, I doubt he listens to lungs in that particular way anymore.

[Midwest4me]

I've NOT had any docs treat me "like dirt" but somewhat rudely at times. While I understand trying to stand up for oneself, it seems to me that IF it's done, it should be done privately (away from patients and with a witness). Overall, I don't see it as a good idea to risk a write-up or any other kind of disciplinary action just to "stand up for yourself". Let the rude comments roll off your back.

[gr8rnpjt, RN]

I worked 11-7 and had a patient who crashed. He bled out through the GI tract-probably a total of 75 minutes from his first gelatinous red bm to death.

I tried to page his attending, called the service twice. He never called back. I finally saw him down the hall in the next unit, after having given his pt a complete bed bath twice due to this torrent of blood coming out like big reddish black clots. Pt was lethargic, and losing bp fast. I ran down the hall and gave a quick report to attending regarding what was going on. In response to my telling him that his service was called twice, he stopped me and said, "wait a minute, these are serious accusations you are making about my service". I was shaking by this time. I said as quietly as possible, "we can discuss the accusations after you see your patient. Please come now." When he got to the room, I lifted the covers and we both saw red everywhere. Pt died soon after. There was no time for orders.

[Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN]

It is generally not worth the effort that you have to put into it!

Even if they lose, they always lose the lesson.

I did, however, forcefully toss a fire helmet in the direction (No, if I'd wanted to hit him it would have - as I tend to have good aim) of a certain MD one night - I wanted his attention, I GOT IT! Never needed to ask for it twice again.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Today i did. And i said to the doctor "the pt. is moving around" (under general anesthesia, and moving, as in, raised his right leg and arm in the air, which is not common where i work, HELLO). The MDA said (yelled) "yeah yeah whatever, what do you know". I said "The pt. is trying to reach up here and assist us, which is actually not helping. He's also breathing rapidly." Not even 30 seconds later the pt. coded. So the MDA actually had to put his Wall Street Journal down for a few minutes. The pt. made it, but i said to the doctor "Even afer that i still wish you better care if you were in that guy's position, than you obviously cared about him."

We'll see if i'm employed tomorrow.

[livefrmaust]

on one of my clinical placement at a busy gastro surgical ward..i was really pissed of by one of the registrars. pt had a new suture line and newly inserted colostomy. Reg used the same gloves to inspect the colostomy site(wich had discharge) to inspect the suture line, touching and proding.. i was increasingly getting irritated because i was thinking of cross infection blah blah. same reg had told me before that he doesnt think much of student(as if he fell from heaven as a reg). so when he was touching the suture line, i opened a new pack of gloves and politelly told him to change his gloves. needless to say he gave my facilitator a bad report about me.

[livefrmaust]

on one of my clinical placement at a busy gastro surgical ward..i was really pissed of by one of the registrars. pt had a new suture line and newly inserted colostomy. Reg used the same gloves to inspect the colostomy site(wich had discharge) to inspect the suture line, touching and proding.. i was increasingly getting irritated because i was thinking of cross infection blah blah. same reg had told me before that he doesnt think much of student(as if he fell from heaven as a reg). so when he was touching the suture line, i opened a new pack of gloves and politelly told him to change his gloves for the suture line. needless to say he gave my facilitator a bad report about me.

[DragonKeeper]

I've done this a few times. I worked in a small practice with myself, one other nurse, and one doc. We had an agreement. If he started to act like an ass or get the whole "God-complex" thing going, I was free to let him know without fear or retribution. And I did. Lots. And he never said a bad word.

Another time I was reading a chart and a doc wrote down PERRLA. Ok. I sat down next to him and said, "Wow, I am very impressed with the manufacterer." To which I got a very odd look and a, "Huh?" "Well, if that patient is PERRLA, than that is the best prostetic eye I have ever seen!" He got a chuckle out of that one.

Fast forward 10 years, same doc. I was working at a nursing home. I called to get an order on a Res who was ping-ponging on her blood sugar. He gave me the order to which I said, "Very good sir, however that is an inappropriate order. Please let me finish giving you my assesment before I go to the trouble to excute an order that won't solve the problem." He appologized for jumping the gun and listened to me and gave a more appropriate order.

I'm known as the short pain in the ass nurse with many docs. All because I have a problem keeping my mouth shut when they do something not quite right.

[niceynurse33]

We have a couple of doctors that have God complexes. The way I see it is we are all on the same team and should be treated equally (everyone down to the custodian). I don't think anyone is below me or above. So when I had to deal with one of the Cardiologist that eveyone is afraid of, I just stood my ground, I had my facts ready, and told him that until he could talk to me in a civialized voice I was done with this conversation. And told him where he could find me when he was ready. He has never had a tantrum when I have been around since. You just have to be sure of yourself and let them know that.

[peggy2624]

As a surgical nurse I'm used to all sorts of temperments but one day a cardiac surgeon went too far. After being promised a 1 PM start time but finding he was to be delayed by the patient in the room previously, needing more time to transfer to ICU...he proceeded to verbally berate me in front of his patient and others in the pre-op holding area. He actually said I was "killing his patient." Then he wouldn't allow me time to provide the standard of care in doing a proper skin prep because I'd already "wasted so much of his time."

I wrote an incident report both for his unprofessional behavior and also for his compromise of patient safety by failure to follow standards of practice.

Several days later the head of the cardiology department called to ask me if this was true and if so did I have a witness. My answer to both questions was "yes". She then asked me to get my witness and repeat my statement in front of the witness. Which I did. She then asked my witness if my report was as she witnessed and the witness corroborated my statement. The chief just quietly said, "I'll take care of him".

This cardiac surgeon never again raised his voice nor questioned my time. Nor did any of the other surgeons who'd heard of the incident....most having the intelligence to realize that if I'd been forced to take such action there was just cause. It's nice to have professional confidence!! And competence.

[Bethy-lynn]

Once worked with a particularly rude, not so nice cardiologist who managed to be mean to everyone. One day he came over, all in a Tizzy, and I said to him " Are you having a bad day? Do you need a hug?" He looked at me like I was completely insane, but I never had a problem with him after that. He even offered to bring me lunch. I've used it just a couple of times since then, works like a charm.

[margarnp]

I have a few times and I was justified. I can snap back quickly if I have had a rude doctor that is critical in front of patients or other staff.

Once an OBGYN confronted me about not charting a procedure that I had just finished. He said he expected to see everything charted when he made rounds. I told him if I took time to chart everything I did, I would not have time to do the stat procedures. This was on a surgical floor with 20 patients and I was the only RN. Another time, I had called a doctor about a patients blood pressure. I was an ER nurse,again the only staff. He came an hour later and found the patients blood pressure lower, of course.

I told him if he had come earlier the patients blood pressure would have still been high but I had calmed the patient down. Both these incidents were when I was a new nurse. I never had problems with either one of them again. If you let them get by with being rude or unreasonable, they will always be that way.