Nasty M.D phone manners

willie2001 · Jan 21, 2002

We have a particular doc who won't even acknowledge your page unless you do it according to his specific criteria. He wants to know that he is being paged for something important!! I think that is very arrogant. He did not return my page once for some really out of whack lab results. I charted that attempt was made to notify physician by page, unsuccessful. He saw my charting and made the comment that I had paged him incorrectly and then proceeded in a condescending manner to instruct me in the fine art of paging. I politley told him that I never page him for unimportant matters and that I never have a problem when paging the other docs. Really!! :rolleyes:

RyanRN · Jan 21, 2002

I've got to agree with P=RN, most docs are mighty nice and easy to work with, team players. There are always the exceptions and everyone gets tired and cranky at times, me too:rolleyes:

Willie, that pompous doc got you off the issue and defensive. You might have told him he had too many rules and since this isn't a game you're sticking with what you wrote, the truth. Smile and let HIM explain his negligence.

I know one really nice guy, but telephone orders are not his forte. You know Charlie Browns teachers 'voice', wawawawawa? That's it! Hard to transcribe THAT into anything therapeutic.

frann · Feb 10, 2002

We really only have one group of doctors here that are nasty. I'm sure you have all heard about them. We just put them on speaker phone now. much nicer. I pray I never develope kidney problems. I would drive to another town that have to see these guys.

Sleepyeyes · Feb 16, 2002

Am I the only victim who gets orders over cell phones from docs who are totally out of range???? hisssssssss, boooooooo!!! (crackle, crackle)

:eek:

P_RN, ADN, RN · Feb 16, 2002

Oh Sleepy! We had one who would call for an update on his patients on that crackly cellphone...every morning from the parking deck downstairs!!

I really think he just wanted to play with his new toy!. Before we hung up good there he was on the floor.

Franca · Feb 16, 2002

There's a device that can be attached to the phone to record conversations. I heard about it as being used by news reporters doing phone interviews in order to have audio documentation of their interviews, for clarification and also, in case of lawsuits, for verification. Would that be something helpful to own? (I'm in the boat with kats above as to learning as much as I can from you all.)

How did you all learn to confront in a professional manner? Nursing school???? I don't imagine that nursing school teachers role play these incidents with the students.

My heart sank reading the post about the patient dying. What a horrible way to die. How do you handle the anger toward the doctor for heightening the stress of the patient?

Also, how do you handle emotionally, just after it happens, a chart having been thrown at you? I grew up in a violent, unpredictable family environment, but thankfully I have never had anyone lose control and direct it physically at me. I'm not sure what I would do after I had ducked a chart. I'm not even sure what I'd do if I saw a doctor throw a chart at another staff member. I think I'd call hospital security in either instance and then file an incident report.

I wonder if the "covering" over nurses needs to be strengthened, because don't people, unless they are criminal or insane or criminally insane, keep physical boudaries if the repurcussion of overstepping them is clearly understood? What bully "beats up" a younger brother when the older, bigger, and stronger brother is standing alongside?

momrn50 · Feb 18, 2002

We haveone MD who only accepts one phone call a day at exactly 3:45 in the afternoon and the entire time you're on the phone with him, he keeps saying "Hurry up or I'll hang up on you."What a jewel!!!!!

sharann, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2002

Have you thought of pputting the night nurse up to calling him at 3:45 (0345 that is) at night? Then saying you heard he only gets calls at 3:45? O.K, I'm sort of kidding, but that is unacceptable. Do you document this? "Was in the middle of recieving orders/giving staus report and MD hung up"

Brownms46 · Feb 21, 2002

:eek: :confused: .....boy these post bring back a really bad experience I had with calling a ....totally horrible neurosurgeon one morning.

I received a child with a GSW to the head one morning in an ICU. He was shot by a drifter/handy man whom the father had picked up on their way to S. C. from Jacksonville, Fl. The family was relocating to start a ministry. The wife had stayed in Fl to tie up loose ends before joining her family. Not sure how this all happened, but it seems the father and the drifter got into a fight ...supposedly the drifter was caught stealing from them. The father was killed and it seems the little boy went to run out of the door, and was shot in the head. Their little girl was found in a catatonic state by neighbors near the boy's body.

The boy was placed in my bed as I was the one to take the next admission. His head was wrapped in an ace bandage and was on a vent. He had IVF running, and the following VERBAL order was given to the ER nurse, and reported to me. The "order" was to not call the neurosurgeon, who had seen him in the ER and sent him to the ICU, for ANYTHING! I mean except IVF, rate, VS, and Vent orders...NO OTHER ORDERS GIVEN. I was totally confused in this situation, and so was everyone else in the unit. The BP started to drop no sooner then we had received him, and I called the "DR" for orders totally ignoring the "verbal order". I was SCREAMED at in the most unnerving, most bone chilling voice I have EVER heard in my entire life! This "neurosurgeon"...stated...HE IS D E A D DDDD! DON"T YOU UNDERSTAND.......D E A DDDDDDD! DIDN'T THE ER NURSE GIVE YOU MY ORDER! CAN"T YOU FOLLOW A SIMPLE ORDER! HE IS DEADDD! NOW DON"T CAAAALLL ME AGAIN!!! The other nurses stated they would have hung up on him...but I was sooooo out done...I couldn't believe what I had heard! I was absolutely in shock! Why was he on a vent? Why was he admitted to the ICU? Why wasn't he declared dead in the ER? If "HE" had possibly wanted to maintain him for organs...why wasn't something written? Why this response??

The little boy was supposedly 14yrs old, but looked to be about 8 or 9. I then started to receive calls from family members as they found out about the situation and called the unit. The screams were awful...at this moment it has been at least 5yrs ago, and I can still hear them, and this "DR's" response to me.

Everyone who went into this child's room came out crying...not one person wasn't affected in caring for this child. We washed the blood, suctioned brain matter from his nose...I pushed up the rate to support the B/P..... I don't remember a lot about what was done to deal with this situation, as I have tried to keep from thinking about it. It took a long time for me to stop having nightmares about him, and the screams I heard from this "MD". I quess I probably have just blocked a lot of it out.

Worse experience ever for me! I'm sitting her shaking right now! Not sure if it's too much caffiene or a reaction to the memories of this.

CATHYW · Feb 21, 2002

How VERY awful for you:o :eek: . What kind of monster must this MD have been? I imagine that the whole scene in the ER was very traumatic for him, but he should have given you orders to "maintain" or something, while the family came to make their goodbyes.

Did you report thior write him up, or anything? You wouldn't expect that kind of behavior of a drunk off the street, much less a physcian!

I believe your shaking was not the coffee. I firmly believe that you have acase of PTSD. If you have not sought counseling for this, please give your EAP a try. The sight of the boy with such a wound, the mess with the Dr., the truama of having to provide care for the boy with emotional family members coming and going, all of these alone can make you stressed. Add them all together, stir with investigators and detectives, and having to chart out the wazoo, and what do you have? One deep-fried, overdone nurse!

I cannot recall the times I have been up and down 95 through Jacksonville from Brevard County, FL, to North Georgia. I've seen all kinds of folks, knowing that every vehicle and its occupants have their own story. What a nightmare this one was! What town along the Interstate did you work in? :confused:

One more question-did the hospital do any follow-up to this neurosurgeon? I am proud to heaer that your fellow nurses helped you out with this boy. We can spit and bark and snap and snarl at each other, but when it comes down to it, I have never seen a nurse who truly needed help from co-workers not get it.

Hugs to you, and when you feel able, please do the Paul Harvey thing, and give us the rest of the story. God bless you for being there for that boy. I wonder what happened to his poor sister?:stone :confused: :eek:

NurseDennie, BSN, RN · Feb 21, 2002

((((((((((((( Brownie )))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Love

Dennie

Brownms46 · Feb 22, 2002

Dear Cathy and Dennie,

Thank you both for your understanding. I have it together now...but I think you're right Cathy about the PTSD. Funny I thought it didn't bother me anyone.

Anyway...I do remember writing this up...supervisor being called...my telling them that I wouldn't take anymore or his pts.( which didn't prove to be a problem...since most of his pts required ICP/CPP monitoring...and this hospital required RNs to do monitoring.) But anything specfic...I just can't remember....seems like it happened a hundered years ago...or like a dream...you know.

Anyway...this happened in the ICU/CCU unit of the Carolina Hospital Systems....in what used to be the Cedar building in Florence, S. C.. Some people familiar with Florence might remember the hospital as "Bruce" Hospital. The family wasn't there in person...just calling on the phone...one by one. All I remember is the screams! The boy survived until well after I left the unit that morning. We got him about 4-5am that morning.

He was very small for his age. He had a permit in his pockets that said he was 14, but he barely look 8...maybe 9. Resp had to come in because of the vent, and x-ray because of the ETT but...anyway. I was told his mother made it from Jacksonville while he was still on the vent. The sister was taken in by a local church family until the mother and uncles go there. Yes they found the guy. A real low life.... Just about all I remember.

Tthe NURSES I worked with there were the absolute, most awesome nurses ever!!! They were right there by my side during this whole ordeal. I don't know if I could have handled this if I had been in one of those ..."we hate travelers units". Yes...they could care for me or ANY of my family members! And once they did have to care for one of their own. Had to go upstair and rescue one of their nurses from the floor after having an adverse reaction to an antibiotic. not funny...but she called them on the phone...after no one answered her call bell!!

When we got an admission...anyone who wasn't tied up with their own pts. helped you get them admitted, on the monitor, IV started, flds hung, suction, o2, .orders taken off...cardex done....labs done...pt weighted and bathed...all within the hour...depending on how stable they were. I did about 4-5 contracts in that unit...back to back!!!

I must state that this neurosurgeon enjoyed making any nurse feel like she didn't have a clue! He loved getting some new contraption and "instructing" the nurse how to use it....like he was talking to a two year old! I was glad I never had to deal with him again before the end of my contract.

Thanks again you guys...thanks for the hug Dennie

:cool: