My husband is a nurse who works at a different hospital than I do, and he been there a few years. We're just biding our time until he can find a job at a different place. The stories he tells me about what he has to put up with makes my hair curl. I would love to tell you a few nightmares that stick out in my head just to feel better from venting about them, but I really wish for advice or perceptions from any experienced nurses and anyone in nursing administration on this one incident that recently occured.
A patient (not my husband's) unfortunately coded early in the AM on NOC shift and this patient did not survive. This was a major shock to everyone involved; this patient, even though in their 60's, was rock stable, and was awaiting to go to surgery to have a lap chole. The protocol at his facility is that the ED physician comes to the unit to run the code, but the hospitalist (who's the patient's PCP during night shift) needs to be present to help recount patient's history, work through H's and T's, etc. The hospitalist on shift is notorious for being sub-par (writing the most ridiculous orders, taking forever to call back when paged, etc.) and did not arrive when paged for this code. This was no surprise to my husband, because he overheard this particular doctor say once, "Oh, it's silly for me to go to my patient's codes, because the ED docs always run the codes anyway."
The ED doc asked my husband to page them again. He did, and when they called back, the hospitalist said to my husband, "I'll be there in 20 minutes (!!!)... mumble...mumble."
He said, "I didn't hear what you said." And after some more coaxing, they finally said, "I said, 'I'll be there in 20 minutes (again... can you believe that crap!?). I left the hospital to get a cup of coffee." My husband relayed that to the ED doc and, of course, the ED doc went nuts. Apparently, leaving the hospital while on duty is typical for this particular hospitalist, but this ED doc only had heard rumors until now. He wanted the whole incident written up, and rightly so, because from what my husband understood, there was no way anyone could have foreseen this patient dying.
The charge nurse (who was this patient's nurse) encouraged my husband to document the phone conversation in the patient's chart, and as a result, all of the hospitalists are mad at him now for documenting it. His nurse manager has just given him a warning, and I think this is just another incident that's going to make him look harder for a job elsewhere.
I'm just baffled and I don't know what to tell him. I work at a large university hospital, and I usually have to kick doctors out of codes for just being in the way and gawking, so being told about there being not enough doctors at a code is foreign to me!
My biggest question is this: Do you think it was wrong for my husband to document the phone conversation? I feel like all objective data should be documented, and that this doctor has been playing with fire for a while now and should pay the price for their negligence. Even if their presence probably wouldn't improve the outcome, I still feel that they should have been there. I also feel that since the hospitalists are employed by the hospital, they should NOT leave the hospital for any reason whatsoever, and certainly should notify another MD to sign out to them if they absolutely have to. I can understand how it can be viewed at "tattling" by the hospitalist team, as well, but hearing about this "'good ol' boy mentality" among the hospitalist team ticks me off. What do you think of this situation? What's protocol at your hospital? Thanks everyone!
