Need help

[julezzz26]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could give me any help here.....I graduated from nursing school last summer and have been working as an lpn for the last 6 months in an ambulatory clinic setting. I work with the same doctor every day. He is a new doctor, he passed his boards about the same time I did. We have been working together for the last five months every day and at first it was OK. We got along fine and both tried hard to find our system to make the day go smooth. After about the first 2 months, I notice he had gotten kind of attached to me (not in a sexual way or anything even close to that) but as far as like lunch breaks and things. He wanted to eat lunch together every day and would get upset if he had to work through lunch and I went out to lunch with the other nurses and MAs. He wouldn't yell or anything but would be in a mood and make comments when I would come back kind of half joking half serious, like "thanks for inviting me to lunch, thanks for deserting me." I got the feeling he was a little too attached to me so now I just say "OK, I'm going to lunch, see you in a while" and take off. About 10% of the time he is Ok to work with. The rest of the time it is really hard.....he is very defensive, passive aggressive, indecisive and rigid. He whines alot and looks for the negative in every situation. He is very sensitive and likes drama. I think all of this behaviour is because he does not have any confidence in himself. He is definetly a hard worker but we are always behind(we see 3 patients at scheduled appointment times every hour)

Since this is my first job in the healthcare field, I really don't have anything to compare this situation to. Every once and a while, I am rotated to a different doctor for a day (because of staff sceduling) and have come to the conclusion that this is not normal, based on my limited experience. I have to stay late every day and am planning to start an lpn to rn program at night in July. I am very nervous because I will have to leave on time to be able to get to school on time. I am alos exhausted by the end of the day because I ahve to constantly monitor what I say to him because he will take it the wrong way. One day he was going on and on about some patient that came late for their appt, basically throwing a temper tantrum like a 2 year old. He asked me about 20 minutes later after his tantrum if I was mad at him. I said I wasn't mad but he needs to stop complaining about pts coming late because it is out of our control and we would just have to work on our daily system and find a way to incorporate the late pts into our day. He was in a complete snit the whole afternoon and barking at me. When I went to leave that evening he pulled me into his office and said his feelings were really hurt by what I said and that I had attacked his character. We talked it out and got it worked it and I thought everything was OK. Every day since then, at least once a day, he will make it a point to say "I'm not whining" if he says anything that could be construed as negative and then looks at me and waits for a response. I think this is very passive agressive so I just ignore it. I talked to my nurse manager about switching to a different doctor yesterday (there is an opening in my department, I could work with one of the physician's assistants, who loves to teach and is a great guy, I have worked with him before and he has mentioned to me that he would work with me anytime. Our personalities as pretty similar, he has been a PA for 15 years and is pretty mellow. He does alot of trauma, broken bones, sprains, lacs, toenail removals ect....I would really learn alot if I worked with him on a daily basis) I really felt blown off by my manager when I asked her, she was more interested in if I wanted to transfer to a different department. I don't want to transfer, I love everyone else I work with. What should I do? (Sorry this is so long, I didn't realize how upset I was until I started typing, thanks for letting me vent)

[TazziRN, RN]

Keep asking to work with another doctor. In the meantime, make it clear to Dr. Child that his behavior is unacceptable. When he starts whining (and he is!), if you can just walk away. If you can't, wait until he's finished and change the subject.

[julezzz26]

Thanks Tazzi, I feel better. I will definetly take your advice.