I have found that if the nurse is prepared before she wakes a doc a 3am they are more likely to be kind. They dont like calls, and when they ask a question the nurse doesnt know the answer or has to look it up. Just be prepared. Sometimes no matter what you do they are nasty. I have reminded them at times in my most professional manner I can muster that I am attempting to be helpful, and respectful and expect the same. Have never been written up for a comment to a doc, so far so good. Good luck, dont be thin skinned, never let them see you cry
Just refuse to take crap off of anyone! I had a Dr.go off on me when I called him at 11pm one night to get clarify one of his poorly written orders. When I let him have a piece of my mind about his attitude, I could sense his jaw dropping open on his end of the line, but he straightened his attitude and gave me the information I needed to take care of his patient. Stop being timid! We have to put a stop to this master/slave relationship garbage if we are ever to be taken seriously as professionals.
Amen! i swear, assertiveness needs to be an entire course in nursing school. i truly believe that the fact that most nurses behave as if they are lower than doctors is one of the main reasons why we are not respected. i also don't get this idea about ignoring the bad attitudes of the doctors. i believe in demanding respect from everyone i work with, if a dr says or does something inappropriate, it is your right, and i think obligation, to not let them get away with it.
As a student, I've only run into conflict with 1 doctor. I was new to the floor and got a good cursing at, because I bathed my patient, had her dressed and room straightened before the doctor did rounds. I didn't know of Dr. B*tch's unwritten policy that we must all put our work on hold until she is off the floor :icon_roll
All the other doctors have been super nice to me, and are eager to teach. I've had more bad experience's with the nurses than anything.
Officer O'Myacin just loooves adding on charges when people do that when he arrests them.... I'm sure that "public littering" or something of the like would have been added on had he been there!
But I think the public is well aware of the "God Complex" but they put up with it since they feel they depend on docs for all the answers. (I think I just threw up a little into my mouth typing that...)
But we nurses are supposed to be angels at the bedside, wiping feverish brows and saying "yes doctor" and "right away doctor" and bustling off to bring sunshine, light and bedpans to all that need them!! So a moody doc is all in a happy day's work...(blah...)
So many of the responses on this thread are so disheartening. I really wonder if one of the root problems with the issues we see in nursing (disrespect, lower wages than we deserve, being overworked etc.) is internalized sexism. Why in the world would I want to be patient with, wait out, or psychoanalyze and sympathize a jacka** doctor!?
Nurses are professionals who deserve respect, but we will never get it so long as we are "patient" and "sympathetic" with people who treat our hard work, and rigorous education like it's little more than dirt on their shoes. Passive aggressive actions like flinging feces (however funny and cathartic it may be) on arrogant doctor's property do nothing for us either. Why not simply do what some other nurses have done, like confront the issue then and there or complain to management? Why do so many nurses feel they need to put up with this behavior? Do male nurses face this kind of disrespect? DO they normally make excuses about being patient and sympathizing with doctors who are under a lot of pressure--as if nurses aren't constantly under pressure.
My ahh-hah moment in nursing school about doctors:
Listening to MD rounds in the Peds ICU, Dr. So-n-so giving lecture on the patients and testing the students with what would you do situations and we the peon nursing students are told in good humor to quit answering for the MD students (it was accidental... you get so used to answering the clinical instructor ASAP). It was then that it clicked for me: MDs are getting a much more indepth study of how to CURE or fix the human. I am getting the crash course on the fixin' so I can CARE for the human. But there is a lot of info that we, docs and nurses, are taught in common so that we can practice in our professions.
Docs are just humans, too. If you want to be a doormat for your neighbor, cashier, other nurses, SO, kids, etc... then by all means do so for a doc. If you would like respect then treat others with respect and stand up for yourself.
Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
It was then that it clicked for me: MDs are getting a much more indepth study of how to CURE or fix the human. I am getting the crash course on the fixin' so I can CARE for the human.
Not exactly true. Your work as a nurse does involve curing as well as caring for the patient. Who gives the medicines, treatments, etc.? Who constantly assesses the pt's responses to these Rxs & Txs? Who speaks for these pts when what the doc has ordered doesn't work or has an adverse affect? The nurse does. You are often the eyes & ears of the doc and the voice of the pt. You are definitely more involved in the cure of the patient than you think. You are getting a degree in science, not caring.
Caring is great and necessary, but your future employer will be paying you to be knowledgeable
in the science of nursing. They can get people who care about the patient for free. Don't downplay your own education or scientific knowledge. That's one of the reasons the public just doesn't get what nurses do.
Nope, John Q. Public is oblivious. Even after this happens.
Docs are just people too. They cry, whine, hunger, thirst, urinate, defecate and hemorrahage just like the rest of us. I will never understand the God complex or where it comes from.
It has something to do with the fact that doctors are expected to be perfect or else they get hit with a lawsuit
If we dont want doctors to have god complexes, lets STOP putting them up on pedestals and demanding that they be perfect 100% of the time.
At a place I worked previously, I had a surgeon use the "f" word and hang up on me when I called him about a patient that continued to bleed from his central line site hours after placement. This occured even though the "stupid nurses" (his words) had done everything he again suggested. I wrote him up. He never was rude to me again.
I am happy to say that I don't run into that attitude nearly as much as I used to, and I have been a nurse for a verrrrrrrrrrrrry long time. I see it mostly in the older docs. At our hospital we don't take it off the young docs and interns. We are a teaching hospital and we teach them from the start. It doesn't take long for the ones who try to have an attitude to get it adjusted. :chuckle
It seemd that this physician is way out of line. Also sounds as if he is burned out and frustrated. I think maybe we need to take a second look through at why doc's behave this way. Some of them maybe ego based. But maybe its not about US(nurses), maybe it is about their own frustrations, feelings of inadequcies, or that so many people look for the quick fix and then demand also. A little understanding and listening may get them to open up and not be fearful of being human. Of course if we all treated each other this way instead of having over infalted expectations, we could work as teams to give the best of patient care.
You may be right that this is the reason. However, the reason does not excuse the behavior. How many times have we been told to be professional and not bring our problems into work with us? No one should treat another person this way and be allowed to do so. In the almost 30 years I have been in nursing I can honestly say that the docs I have seen do this treat everyone that way, sometimes even their patients. So I tend to disagree that it is not their ego talking. Whatever the case, I have seen these same docs treat the nurses that refuse to take this treatment differently and agree with several of the other posts that we must refuse to accept it.
So a moody doc is all in a happy day's work...(blah...)
BennyFan
14 Posts
I have found that if the nurse is prepared before she wakes a doc a 3am they are more likely to be kind. They dont like calls, and when they ask a question the nurse doesnt know the answer or has to look it up. Just be prepared. Sometimes no matter what you do they are nasty. I have reminded them at times in my most professional manner I can muster that I am attempting to be helpful, and respectful and expect the same. Have never been written up for a comment to a doc, so far so good. Good luck, dont be thin skinned, never let them see you cry