Hostile work environment - Violent Doctor

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I have come across a delema at work that I have not had experience with. I've been an employee of my hospital a long time...with the last 10 yrs as an RN. We had an incident recently where during a Cesarean Section the Physician put his hands on our Scrub Tech in anger and pushed him away from the field saying "get the **** out of my OR" after the Doctor was asked/reminded that what he was doing was "nonsterile/unsafe" The baby was saftely delivered and the patient stable before this occured. This particular doctor likes to make our OR environment "intense" and it is uncomforable and he acts like a bully. Now there are several of us (techs and RNs) that feel that if he put hands on an employee in anger once he will do it again. Risk Management was involved, but there doesn't seem to be any consequences for his actions as he still has a bullying attitude. The tech & doctor are male...could this be the reason that it isn't taken more seriously?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Summer

Summer70 said:
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I do understand that I am not going to be in on any disciplinary action, but coming in a week later and still acting like a condescending bully shows me that if he was reprimanded it wasn't severe enough. it just makes several of us uncomfortable and our jobs are stressful enough without having to worry about what might set him off.

There is strength in numbers. If EVERYBODY who experiences unprofessional to illegal behavior in this guy writes him up, the chances rise that something actually gets done.

Some lawyers take cases on a contingency basis. Meaning, that you can sue for damages and you are not charged unless you actually win money. Then the lawyer takes a percentage of the award.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

Absolutely no need to be afraid. Plan for how to stick up for yourself if you ever become his target. He gets verbally aggressive just look at him calmly and tell him that's not ok. If he puts his hands on you or does anything to physically threaten your safety, march straight out and file charges.

Not a bad idea to report him to the board if he keeps being inappropriate.

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I had a situation happen between a doctor and I. My manager told me after the fact that HR/CMO had "talked" to this particular doctor. Facilities usually don't tell the employees about a potential disciplinary action because they don't want the word getting around to the doctor before the meeting.

I too questioned my supervisor as to what happens now, after the incident, so I could prepare for future incidents. I was instructed to keep writing him up. I was informed it takes a lot of write ups/incidents to fire a doctor because they are usually contracted and it would be a "loss of lifestyle" lawsuit on behalf of the doctor if they were suddenly fired. I would definitely report him to the medical board if the facility keeps letting this behavior continue. He is a huge liability to the patients and staff.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/LDRP/Ortho ASC.

I left L&D after situation after situation like this occurred with physicians and culminated with a surgeon throwing a clamp at me mid procedure and hitting me in the belly with it while I was counting laps...he was shouting "can I please get some $'^t that actually works!" The manager did nothing about any of it...said it "wasn't her place" to address physician behavior. The medical director also didn't give a crap because he told her he "apologized." I filed a police report but I was never called to court or anything. The only positive outcome was that now I literally have 0 inhibiton to call a physician out when they're being a jerk. It's absolutely insane what they get away with.

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Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

While this involved sexual harassment and some battery it is an awesome example of what happens when HR ignores the employees who have a legitimate complaint. They did not want to upset the cardiac surgeons who were bringing in the big bucks ...OOPs BIG MISTAKE

Maybe your HR needs to have a copy of this slipped under their door :yes:

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working in heart surgery this behavior i have seen a time or two ..blades hitting the wall, steps flying across the room, personal insults. I find that when the doctors are in a very high stress situation they can be out of hand.. I am not condoning this behavior at all it makes for a very volatile and unsafe OR. Situations like these that are brought to risk management the doctors at hospitals I have worked for did receive disciplinary action, write ups, and mandatory anger management, But the other people involved in the situation are not given an update on what the action is. I hope your hospital is doing something. I hate that this behavior goes on who wants to work in that kind of environment. often i don't feel i have a voice especially in private hospitals. teaching/public hospitals tend to handle these situations with a much stronger hand.

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Quote
working in heart surgery this behavior i have seen a time or two ..blades hitting the wall steps flying across the room, personal insults. I find that when the doctors are in a very high stress situation they can be out of hand.. I am not condoning this behavior at all it makes for a very volatile and unsafe OR. Situations like these that are brought to risk management the doctors at hospitals I have worked for did receive disciplinary action, write ups, and even mandatory anger management, But the other people involved in the situation are not given an update on what the action is. I hope your hospital is doing something. I hate that this behavior goes who wants to work in that kind of environment.

I work PRN for a surgery practice of three doctors. I quit working for one of them because of a pattern of rudeness (and this is not a high stress environment, it's elective, low risk surgery). It really chaps his buns that I happily work for the other two docs and refuse his cases. It's not easy to find quick coverage there.

Rudeness was enough to turn me off this guy. But the concept of a doc throwing sharp, contaminated objects around an OR is just almost incomprehensible to me. If I was working there and a surgeon threw something at me, I would file charges and a civil suit so fast it would make his head spin. That is dangerous, unprofessional, unethical behavior and no amount of stress or pressure could excuse that. I've read that surgery is one of the top professions sociopaths are attracted to. Your post makes that entirely believable. I'm glad your facilities have addressed these jerks, but it still sounds as if not enough has been done. The culture of surgeon as God has got to stop.

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I'm in Canada and maybe I'm missing something about your jurisdiction but as a nurse by trade and an administrator, I'm curious, do you not have a union that will fight this on your behalf? If this kind of assault were taking place here, that's the first place I would go not to mention filing a complaint /c the College of Physicians & Surgeons.

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This is unfortunate. I've been in the OR a long time; 20 plus years, and I haven't really seen many changes to these situations. Recently we had a very serious situation occur with possible harm to a staff nurse (multiple things being thrown directly at them) and she was, after several months, fired on trumped up stuff. The doc envolved was an employee of the hosptial, and this was one of many, many incidents with this doctor verbally and physcially abusing staff. Bottom line, he was not suspended, just told to apologize to the nurse, end of story. because she was cut by something he threw at her, she saw a lawyer. and wanted to press charges, but was strongly encouraged (Bullied) by hospital administration not to file charges and that was her signing her job away. They did everything they could to fire her and they eventually did; no one else has gone to the manager about these issues because you would have a target on your back. As our manager says to us: nurses are a dime a dozen, for every one of you there are two applicants that can do your job.

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Specializes in Med-surg, telemetry, critical care..

Because its a red state. Nurses, please don't vote against the best interest of yourselves and your patients.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.
Horseshoe said:
There is strength in numbers. If EVERYBODY who experiences unprofessional to illegal behavior in this guy writes him up, the chances rise that something actually gets done.

Some lawyers take cases on a contingency basis. Meaning, that you can sue for damages and you are not charged unless you actually win money. Then the lawyer takes a percentage of the award.

Key phrase: Write it up!! Every single time. I can't even imagine. Patients are awake during C-sections, implications being that such an incident would frighten Mom and every other family member present. Make sure every other nurse or tech presents a united front.

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I have worked in an OR for 16+ years and have been bullied throughout. This behavior greatly decreases the safety we ALL are trying to provide the patient. When once again, having to work with this unstable doctor, one can not help but knot up on the inside. This is because you know that it does not matter how prepared we are this dangerous MD will find fault in something/anything. More than not, you are trying to prevent the wrath of this unstable individual from coming down on everyone in the room. Focused thinking on the patient needs-- now is focused thinking of an unpredictable bully. My understanding is that risk management and directors will NOT stand up to the bully either! I've been told "oh that's just dr so and so, just ignore him ", "he brings in a lot of money", "he might take his business somewhere else". Nothing ever said about the patient who depends on us to protect them. I'm afraid I'm just a poor old dumb nurse, but someone must have an idea, something that might change things for the patient and all the employees in that room? Maybe if patients actually know WHO their doctor is they would see another doctor. I have just changed my position from OR nurse to a different department. Be aware, the bullying gets worse as the nurse gets older, my two "older" nurse friends have left too. One retired, and one to a different hospital, where she fully expects to be up against the same type of bullying just in a different hospital. We hear much talk of bullies, in all walks of life and school, where is the champion with the answer?

And maybe most frightening of all is that --if the poor bullied tech. did say or do anything where would his next job be??? I shudder to think.

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