Nurse manhandled by doctor

[Scrubby]

Hey guys remember how I was dreading coming to work on Monday? I'm starting to wish I'd called in! Sorry this is a long post!

I've seen doctors verbally abuse nurses, seen them throw tantrums and swear at everyone. Have never seen anyone get physical on a nurse until today.

Well today I could not believe the disgusting behaviour of one doctor.

We had patient who had surgery with a very difficult airway who haemorrhaged. It was awful, patient thrashing around, only two of us nurses and a nursing student who were trying to keep him from falling out of the bed. Nurse rushing around trying to bet airway stuff etc. Patient lost control of bowels, bladder very messy, situation. Then it got worse.

The other nurse was next to the doctor trying to staunch bleeding from wound and keep patients arms from thrashing. I was at the end of the bed trying to manage the legs, nursing student next to me. Both of us saw to the whole thing.

The doctor just lost the plot completely. He manhandled the nurse (dare I say assault!), grabbed her right arm and started yanking it towards him (we have no idea what he actually wanted from her something to do with airway assistance probably, no verbal communication here) in a violent manner. He nearly had her off her feet, really pulling her in towards in hard by her wrist with both his arms. It's had to describe this but his whole body was sort of involved with yanking her towards him . The look on his face was pretty scarey, nursing student said he looked as though 'he wanted to eat her alive', I 100% believe the man just lost his temper completely and took it out on her because he looked so incredibly angry.

The nurse (victim) handled it well at the time, didn't yell at him (I probably would have) but when the crisis was over she was really in a state. Could not stand, had to sit with her head down. She had to go home early which I encouraged her to do.

I told her I witnessed the entire incident, that whatever she wanted to do about it I will verify because I saw the whole thing. She reported it to our CNC. CNC's response to this abuse was pretty much 'heat of the moment', 'patient comes first'. You need to speak with the doctor about it yourself'.'Just monitor your wrist and if it's injured we'll take it up further. No mention of incident reports, documenting this assault.

Ok so it was a crisis. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR PHYSICAL INTIMIDATION! How on earth are we to focus appropriately in this situation if doctors are going to manhandle us, potentially cause us injury and give us all post traumatic stress disorder? How is this good for the patient?I was so angry all day I too left early to see a staff counsellor because I could just not cope with any more crap today at work. I needed to let it all out instead of taking it home and having my workplace problems affect my relationship like it's been doing of late.

Before I left I filed a report on the whole thing. Instead of an incident report I filled out a risk register report. The reason being is that our CNC deals with all the incident reports and I don't want anyone no matter what their status handling this if they think 'it's ok, heat of the moment'. I strongly believe his behavior put every nurse in that room at risk because he was just out of control and it put the patient at risk because we weren't fully focused on the patient.

If this doctor had of apologised afterwards it wouldn't have changed me reporting him, but it would have made a huge difference to how we all felt the rest of the day.

And what a great experience for the poor nursing student. Afterwards she asked me is this is acceptable and everyday practice!

Anyway feel better now for a vent. Anyone else have some similar experiences out there?

[Batman24]

And that is an example of why it's best to call the police the minute anyone hits you on the job. You need to protect yourself. She let the doc off and now the hospital is trying to deny her WC claim. If she's in a union she better call her rep. If she isn't she might want to call an attorney to get what's due her. She might even want to call and report him to the police. It's not too late. What a bunch of scumbags.

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

Sad to read. I was mad yesterday in the OR because a surgeon was being an ass. It really irritates me to see how they speak to the scrub nurses and other associated personnel - they sure as hell don't speak like that to the anesthesiologist or other surgeons in the room. I really have to fight the urge to tell them not to speak to me with such disrespect. Even more annoying, when the circulating nurse says "Ah, they're all like that". Why must we put up with it then!? I really feel like saying "I'd be glad to do that when you speak to me like a human being!"

[mskate]

I really feel like saying "I'd be glad to do that when you speak to me like a human being!"

I *did* say that once!!! haha! I get in trouble for saying what I shouldn't a lot. There was a surg. who was *screaming* at me on the phone. I had just come on shift, hadnt seen the pt, was not aware of a ct scan, there was no order for a ct scan, and shockingly - rn didnt know, no order in - ct wasnt done.

I very calmly said "OK, I'm going to hang up on you and you may call me back when you are ready to speak like a grown up." -*click*.

:)

He came onto the unit *irate* and called the nursing sup. who took my side (thankfully!). He was decent to me after all of this finally blew over.

I have *zero* tolerance for people who cannot act like grown ups, staff, patients or visitors. ggrrr! It makes me so mad!!!

[finn11707]

Surgeons are known for being the worst hotheads and the most arrogant A--H----, as I recall when I was working in hospitals. No excuse for it. Perhaps it is time to go to the OR Nurses Association to address the issue. Nothing like a little hoopala to wake up surgeons and administrators.

[Scrubby]

And that is an example of why it's best to call the police the minute anyone hits you on the job. You need to protect yourself. She let the doc off and now the hospital is trying to deny her WC claim. If she's in a union she better call her rep. If she isn't she might want to call an attorney to get what's due her. She might even want to call and report him to the police. It's not too late. What a bunch of scumbags.

Yep thats the lesson I've learned here, if anyone a patient or a doctor grabs at me/slaps my wrist I DON'T CARE, I will be involving the police straight away. I won't even consult with management or my CNC if it happens to me because they have lost my trust over this.

I don't care if he remembers it or not. Not my problem. She certainly felt what he did, I saw it happen and so did a nursing student. It's not like it's one persons word against another.

I still have trouble accepting the way the whole thing has just been trivialised and we've been made out to be exaggerating. Management have really shown me that they don't stand by their nurses at all.

Even other nursing friends of mine here in Oz don't seem to think it's a big deal and they wouldn't go to the police. My own sister a human resources manager thinks it's ok to grab at someone roughly given the circumstances. No wonder doctors think they can get away with just about anything, when nurses are so passive about their own safety.

Ok so maybe he panicked and lost control. I don't care. My safety comes first even before the patient. Maybe I'm being selfish but self-preservation every time. I didn't do a three year degree, end up with debt just to be abused because someone is unable to control their impulses. I have to look out for me because clearly no one else will.

I'm now reconsidering other career options. I'm no longer going to work in a profession where i'm put at risk like this.

Thanks for listening guys. It's been the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with as a nurse.

[3rdcareerRN]

It appears that nurses (and other healthcare colleagues) must stand up for themselves, as JCAHO rules on disruptive behavior may be suspended due to physician pressure:

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/12/01/prse1201.htm

"The AMA [Americal Medical Association] will ask for a one-year hold on the Joint Commission rule. Delegates seek to shift the focus to behavior that harms patients." The physicians are worried that the rules will lead to retaliatory actions against them.

From the comments in this article, one could draw the conclusion that it is OK to intimidate colleagues as long as no patient harm results.

[Jo Dirt]

It sounds like a hairy scary situation. I'm not going to take up for anyone getting physically jerked around, but did he do it more because he was frustrated and was throwing a tantrum, was just plain old mean, or because it was a desperate situation and he was trying to get a job done and there wasn't time to waste?

If it was A, he should be reprimanded, B, he should have his bum thrown in the pokey, if it was C, he owes the nurse a profuse apology.

I never defend getting physical but I also understand desperate times make people act pretty scary where they might not react exactly like they should, yet it could be undestandable in a life and death situation.

[I love my cat!]

These people are in Australia; things may be very different there regarding worker's compensation.

Maybe.

I guess I should have asked the OP regarding the chain of reports for an injured workerer. I made an assumption (I know, never make assumptions) that she would be able to file a report on this because the OP mentioned that before she left she filed a report on the whole thing. Instead of an incident report she filled out a risk register report.

I ignorantly equated that as an incident report that could be a WC report/case.

Thanks for the correction rph3664!! :imbar :imbar

So, on that note...do they have anything that is comparable to WC,

L & I in Australia??

[Scrubby]

Yes we have workers comp on Australia. I really don't know much about it because I've never been on it before.

I personally believe it happened because he was desperate, lost control of the situation and took it out on the nearest person which was the nurse. Yes it may not be his normal behavior but it's no excuse for doing that. she was trying to control bleeding, keep the patients arm from thrashing about and was in no position to help this man.

This may make me sound like a bad nurse but in this sort of desperate situation, I would never ever yank anyone around, no matter how bad it was. If the patient gets an injury because they woke up thrashing unexpectedly and then that's not good, but I'd rather the patient be injured them any staff member including myself get a permanent injury just because someone in the OR wants to be the big hero. Patient safety is all well and good but IMHO staff safety is equally as important.