I just can't believe this one!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Heres the scenario:

30 year old patients has hernia repair. Is a very tall and large man, quite scary looking not surprising given that he is a prisoner.

Anyway procedure goes well, then it's time for waking up.

He was quite combative and there were three nurses myself included trying to keep him from falling of the OR table. He's kicking, punching and trying to jump off the bed. This started happening before we could bring his bed into the room. If this happens on a bed we put pillows next to side rails and just let them kick out all they want. But on an OR table they can quite easily fall off and it's hard getting them up off the floor.

I'm on one side (patient is facing me) trying to hold his legs without being kicked in the face. The other two nurses are on the other side as he is almost slipping off. They didn't want to push him onto me as I'm holding his legs on and trying to avoid being kicked.

The anaesthetists is maintaining the airway. I got an intern to protect the arm on my side as he was waving it around everywhere.

So where are the surgeons during all this ruckus?

Why sitting at the desk, one was on the phone the other was doing paperwork.

As soon as it started happening I yelled out 'we need assistance'. I have a very loud voice you'd have to be pretty hard of hearing not to hear me bellow.

No response from them whatsoever. And they weren't facing the other direction either :angryfire

I yelled out again 'we need a hand here'.

And again.

No response. Other nurses were yelling out for help too at this point. The only people free to press the emergency alarm were the surgeons who didn't move to help us, let alone ring the alarm (they probably don't know how to press the button anyway).

At this point I'm fearing an injury to myself as his legs were kicking towards me and I'm almost ready to step aside and just let the patient fall on the floor. May sound bad but I'm not being a hero and risking a permanent injury.

I just lost it at this point.

"GET OFF YOUR LAZY orificeS AND GET HERE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Pardon my french but it worked (one gave me an odd look like what's wrong with you?) but I'm just feeling so disgusted with the lack of teamwork and care they demonstrated towards patient and staff. I don't know whether it's because they believe they are above simple things like making sure the patient is safe after surgery or if it's just them being oblivious. I don't know. But what annoys me is that I had no chance at all today to talk to them about this.

My back, shoulders and neck is aching from holding his legs down. I'm filling out a workplace injury form and I'm going to making a report to someone about this.

And I did not apologise for my language and have no intentions of it. To have to yell out for help 4 times and be ignored while we have a patient who is about to fall off the table, staff who are struggling not to be injured is just unbelievable. If they try discipling me for yelling at them I will explain that I asked nicely to begin with, even said please but their lack of respect and the situation at the time left me no choice but to resort to shock tactics.

Anyway that's what happened today.

Any similar stories? Do your doctors just sit there and do nothing as well?

In my personal experience with doctors, it seems that there are two groups that are willing to get "hands on" with the patients: Younger ones under age forty, and female doctors. I'm sorry if that sounds stereotypical, but that's what I have experienced.

I about fell over dead one day when the new, young orthopedic surgeon came out of the room and asked me where the washcloths were. I went and got him one (thinking it was for himself) and he smiled and said, "I just fed Mr. X some of his dinner, but I'm afraid I made a bit of a mess". I stood there with my mouth hanging open, and he said, "What? He wasn't NPO was he?" and I said, "No, no, it's wonderful that you did that...I just am not used to that" and he said, "That's really sad. I'm sorry. Nobody is too good to help the patient feel valued!"

I have had doctors literally run from the room when a patient they are visiting starts vomiting. lol. Some of them, they just treat textbooks...they have no inclincation to actually help a patient.

I do remember a story from a coworker about the time she was literally being chased around the nurses station by a demented patient, that the neurologist stood up on a chair and called the operator for help. lmao, I still laugh out loud thinking about that.

I do feel they think it is not there job but several "common courtesy" things seem to be out of their job description. How about when the secretary goes to lunch and an MD will come to you at the bedside cleaning up s*** and ask you to page someone, or they have someone paged and the phone rings and rings because everyone is tied up doing something else and there are three MD's sitting at the desk and none of them can answer the phone....when you finally get to the phone....it is for one of them.

Good one this week...we have intensivists for our unit. I had a patient go into RAF and drop his BP to 70. I called to the cardiologist who was in his office and he could not come right away. I then told the secretary to page the intensivist, getting no orders I hung the saline bolus, was getting the EKG and the intensivist called back saying he was not covering that patient and would not come. (in other words, no consult, no payment)

The intensivist came down after things were settled and I told him I was a little confused because I was under the impression he was covering all of our patients ( which is what we were told) His flip response was that I should not have been confused, I should have called the cardiologist. (said this in front of all my co-workers) I realized he must of thought I just fell off the turnip truck, in the loudest voice I could muster I informed him of all MY actions to treat the patient and my number one thing was to call the cardiologist. What I wanted to say was that, come hell or high water I avoid calling you. My reward was when his face turned beet red.

Thanks for this thread. I am going to thank the doctors more than are more involved with patients and their care. Sometimes it's easy to get hung up on the bad ones, and they are surely out there, but there are also good ones...and the bad ones just make them look all the better. :)

Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

you think as gentlemen they would go help the nurses out. not as docs but as gentlemen, where has society gone wrong? how shameful they are, if my hubby or son didnot help a lady in distress i would kick their butts. i would write them up and teach them some manners.

Unfortunately at the hospital I work at, this is very common. It's a small community hospital (no residents, no interns) and some of the docs still expect to be treated like Gods and expect us to get up and let them use the computer we are currently in the middle of charting on.

I once had a GI specialist doing a consult on one of my patients whose IV started beeping and he yelled out into the hall "Can't anyone hear that beeping??" Unfortunately, most of the staff on the floor at that time was attending to the patient in the room next door who was in cardiac arrest. Now, I know that MD's don't really know how to use IV pumps, but there was a button stating "silence alarm" right on the front. I also know that a doc's brain can hold a lot of information and that if he would have taken 10 seconds of his precious time, he probably would have figured out how to turn the alarm off.

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

We had a combative post op lumbar lami patient the other night. He scooted himself all the way down in the bed and needed to be pulled back up. My co worker didn't want me to help since I am pregnant. (I had no problem helping pull him up in the bed with enough assistance.) The neuro ICU resident was there and said "Come on lets pull him up", and he helped her and the aide pull this guy up in the bed. He is one of the nicest guys.

However neurosurgery is a different story. Ask them for anything and they look at you like you are an alien (there are 2 that aren't like that in the whole group). We had a pt self extubate and they wouldn't come and help. We called Anesthesia and they were angry that neuro surg wouldn't come out and see the pt. This guy was such difficult intubation we almost had ENT come and do a stat bedside trach.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Cath Lab, Cardiology,Neuro.

You had every right to yell at those lazy doc's! I hope your fellow nurses back you up if a discipline note is written up on you! Those lazy A-Holes put your license on the line! Also I too ask where the hell were the correctional officers? What if this guy broke loose and ran out the hospital door? I would also get the correctional officers investigated. This was a safety threat to the hospital workers and patients and to the community (if he broke loose!). We had a case last year here in Mass where a prisoner broke loose from the courthouse, got sent to the ER with two court officers, and when he asked to go to the bathroom, he went unsupervised and broke loose, and somebody was waiting for him outside with a change of clothes. He was captured a week later!

Specializes in med/surg, oncology.

Massrn116

Your first paragraph sums it up for me!! That too has happened to me and it is one of my biggest pet peeves!! I always say in a less than sincere way. "Oh no let me" as I reach over them to get the phone. Then I generally make some comment about how they weren't taught how to answer the phones in med school. I usually get a few looks for that one, but hey, they aren't too good to answer the phone!! As for the OP. Good job! You go! I would have done the same thing!

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Had a resident doc write an order...."intubate patient with anesthesia"...then left the unit. I was a bit peeved considering that as an ICU resident, he should be there when the patient gets intubated. So when I call him I say, "Doc, this is your patient too, don't you think that you should be here at the bedside in case anything should happen during the intubation?".....His response "uh, uh, I have a septic patient coming to the other unit".....Me: "I don't care, airway is priority."

... Next time you might want to yell "HELP!" rather than "we need assistance/a hand here"... IMO it makes a bigger impact and that was an emergency situation... If they realize it's an emergency- they *should* respond. But "We need assistance" doesn't to me denote "HELP- get in here NOW"....

Yes, you'd think that if they weren't willing to get their hands dirty themselves the least they could have done is phoned for help.

Don't know much about surgeons or post surgery at all but I do know one day we were trying to get an psych med order from a doc on an awfully combative patient. He had broken a CNA's nose among other things. She refused to listen and wouldn't give any orders. So I parked the problem patient in front of her in the nurses station and then walked away. Within five minutes she had written an order to admit him to a gero-psych facility for evaluation and within 90 minutes he was in an ambulance and on his way.

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