He Wouldn't Let Me Go

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Let me first preface this post by saying: my mouth did NOT get me into this one!

I was at work a few days back, and was assigned to the doc covering the hospital for my clinic. I had been seeing patients all day, doing initial consults, and helping him as much as I could. I went to lunch, and then saw a patient in my clinic that came in late, so I was later than planned getting back to the hospital. The doc asked if I would go and see a new consult in CCU, and I went up there.

The nurses were working on the chart, so I walked over to the ICU to see our other patients, and there was the doc. He was looking in a chart on a patient who had had a procedure done by him earlier in the day. Apparently, this doc had told the ICU nurse that he was not going to continue ANY of this patient's meds, because "he did not write for abx or narcs". Well, this poor nurse wrote to continue them anyway, like he was SUPPOSED to do, I mean, this man is on meds that are keeping him alive! The doc saw that he had done a telephone order in his name and went ballistic. He called the nurse a liar, and proceeded to throw a tantrum, cursing and yelling, in front of patients and family, not to mention staff. This went on for about 15 minutes. He just went of the deep end. I was mortified, to say the least.

Meanwhile, I have put myself in reverse gear, trying to ease out of the line of fire, and the doc sees me.

"No, no, you stay here. I don't trust these people. They're probably going to go to Admin and tell them I'm having a breakdown."

My only thought was, "Dude, if you're NOT, then I hope they're polishing your Oscar."

He was acting so crazy, looking around at everyone, then whispering to me. I was getting scared at this point, so I reached into my pocket and cycled my pager. I called the office and made like I had a patient to see, as if the office had paged me. The OM thought I was nuts at first, but caught on, simply because I had never acted like that before. I told the doc again that I had to go to the office.

"No, no, you stay here. I don't trust these people."

He WOULD NOT let me go. He stopped short of laying a hand on me, but he was scaring me to death. He had a look that I used to see on my psych patients.

I finally got away and RAN back to the office, where I told the OM about what happened. She phoned my supervising doc, who came over. I was told not to go back to the hospital that day, to stay in the office.

So, here I sit, assigned to him again today, wondering if it will be any better. Sorry for the novel, but thought on how to handle a repeat performance, anyone? Thanks.

[Spritenurse1210, BSN, RN]

Wow! Angel, I'm shocked at his behavior, and I wasn't even there!! I hope admin does something, because this guy sounds awefully volitile. An intervention is certainly needed at this point. WHEW!

[CrufflerJJ, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Glad you were able to get away. It certainly sounds like the doc needs some help.

[Chapis]

you could ask him if it there's a next time, 'hey doc, have you taken your meds today"? lol

i know it was not fun for you, but maybe you can humor him about his behavior meltdown that he had in public.

i hope you have a fantastic day!

[IMABSNRN]

This incident wasn't reported?????

This man sounds very unstable! Dangerous!

[leslie :-D]

angel honey, this really needs to be reported to the chief of staff immediately.

he sounds like a danger to his patients.

truly, this is serious stuff here...

and scary.

dang, even if you report it anonymously, it needs to be reported immediately.

sorry this happened to you, but this is about his patients.

i wouldn't be working w/him until i know he has gotten the help he needs.

leslie

[Mulan]

Yes, he was inappropriate in the way he handled it.

I can understand him being upset with a nurse writing orders and putting it down as a telephone order if it never happened, particularly if he had told the nurse he wasn't going to continue the orders.

Even for med reconciliation, isn't the doctor supposed to be the one that gives the order to continue or not?

The nurse can always go up the chain if meds aren't ordered that need to be, rather than writing their own orders.

You mentioned abx and narcs, were those the only meds involved?

What happened with that?

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Leslie, it was reported, I think the COS knew before I ever made it back to the clinic. This doc will be leaving us shortly, not because of this incident, but still leaving.

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Mulan,

The nurse was following procedure, he had called the PCP and was told that since my doc did the procedure, to write the order that way (from what I was told). There were nitrates and other cardiac meds, abx, narcs, pressors, you name it on the list and he was not going to continue any of it. He called the PCP and told him to handle it. That sparked another screaming match, because the PCP thought that it was my doc's job.

Ultimately, he DID continue the meds, but wrote an order to verify all meds with ordering physician. That as well went over like the proverbial lead balloon.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Angel my friend, you have had experience with the wackiest chain of the worst medicine can offer in Docs. Whew! You should journal and write a book... or sell the scenarios to one of the med soaps and make some money off your cortisol infused veins.

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Angel my friend, you have had experience with the wackiest chain of the worst medicine can offer in Docs. Whew! You should journal and write a book... or sell the scenarios to one of the med soaps and make some money off your cortisol infused veins.

They DO seem to gravitate to me, don't they? Never thought about that till now.