Hostile work environment - Violent Doctor

[Summer70]

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

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

This physician reminds me of OLD School medicine. Hostile Work Environment is often, in my mind, from my 30 years of nursing, a code phrase of bullying physicians in the work place. In my first 15 years of nursing, it was more common than not to witness physicians being totally disrespectful and unprofessional towards nurses. Sexist, rude, profane, aggressive, immature, you name it, you saw it. Physicians cursing ten times worse than sailors in front of or at patients and nurses. Physicians picking up charts and throwing them at nurses and clerks. Physicians having very loud temper tantrums in the hallways. Yes...this was common...back then. Administration did nothing and tended to look the other way. Whistle blowers were often retaliated against by Admin. Later on...thanks, I'm sure, to lawsuits and patient satisfaction scores impacting the administrative dollar, administration began to step in and intervene. Nowadays, that same physician would get hospital security called upon him/her in many hospital facilities. In fact, for myself, if a physician did become hostile and I felt unsafe, I would not hesitate to call security...even if just to begin a paper trail on that physician. If he/she becomes hostile towards you, it may very well occur again with another staff member. In the past, many nurses had to put up with a lot of poor physician behavior...because THAT was the norm and you were expected to suck it up or leave according to most Admin back then. Nowadays, such behavior is totally unacceptable by anyone, including a physician. In saying all of this, I truly believe from being a nurse for so long and by working in different hospital settings, much of physician behavior in the hospital is directly related to what the work philosophy is in Admin. It all starts and ends in Admin on high. If they permit it or turn the blind eye to it, then poor physician behavior would certainly return. If a physician threatens you harm, that is assault. If he/she actually lays hands on you, that is battery. In either case, security needs called and the paper work needs to begin....before even contacting your manager. Next, you begin looking at your options.