Personal attack in progress note from physician

Leelee2 · Oct 4, 2010

Not enough info or detail to comment on...sorry

j621d · Oct 4, 2010

Take it up the chain of command.

NoviceRN10 · Oct 4, 2010

I thought progress notes were for pts, not staff!

leslie :-D · Oct 4, 2010

Has anyone ever heard of a physician writing a criticism towards a nurse in a progress note? Are they not taught this is a legal record in med school? Of course, the doc got away with this immaturity. I keep thinking if this ever went to court........

what do you think would happen, if it ever went to court?

as long as the nurse acted within his/her sop and competently, there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

iow, as long as the dr's criticism was subjective, i'm not understanding the worry.

yes, it's pretty darned shabby what s/he did...

unless s/he had a point to make?

leslie

ctmed · Oct 4, 2010

One place I worked, a nurse wrote a critical comment about an ER nurse's attitude. Needless to say, the nurse who wrote it got slammed.

Not sure how that is going to work for a doctor. In some places, these guys are like minor gods. It would be easier for a doctor to just apply political pressure with administration if he thought a nurse was incompetent.

Wouldn't doing stuff like that leave everybody open for lawsuits if some lawyer got his hot hands on the medical records?

JB2007, ASN, RN · Oct 4, 2010

Yes I have seen it happen to one of the nurses that I work with. Needless to say she took the progess note to the administrator who then call the doctor and ripped him a new one. That is a legal document and they should not be critizing other healthcare workers in it. If the doctor had a real problem with the care the nurse was giving the pt. then he should have called the DON or administrator.

kayern · Oct 4, 2010

Something similar happened years ago. At my institution we do not take verbal orders but telephone orders are acceptable, policy dictates that one nurse is sufficient to take the order provided she reads it back to the MD prior to hanging up.

One night this MD gives a nurse a telephone order, which she writes in the record and reads back to the MD. If memory serves me, it was a change in a medication. The next day, MD comes in and instead of co-signing the order he writes "I never gave this order". So of course what happens.............nothing to the MD, the nurse was coached (not formally written up).

For about three months after the incident whenever Dr. No Order attempted to give a telephone order, her colleagues would say to Dr. No Order, "let me get another nurse for verification", get a nurse then take the order. It took about three weeks before he complained to me and stating he couldn't understand why this was happening. I simply recounted the story. HE GOT the message loud and clear.

Flying ICU RN · Oct 4, 2010

An example of unprofessional behavior at a seemingly highly educated level.

lxpatterson · Oct 4, 2010

Will I really get to work with such ***** clinically when I graduate? I know quite a few docs on a personal and academic basis and theyre quite nice...I hope this is an America only phenomenon!

Nicky30, BSN, RN · Oct 5, 2010

Will I really get to work with such ***** clinically when I graduate? I know quite a few docs on a personal and academic basis and theyre quite nice...I hope this is an America only phenomenon!

Nope. It happens in Australia too.

KJStarling · Oct 5, 2010

Once we had a Doctor write in 3 inch high marker "If the nurses had done their job the patient wouldn't be so critical!" in a progress note. Of course our unit went nuts! DON and CMD just about eviscerated him... Plus, he tried to hide it by throwing the note away later, but the Charge Nurse had already copied it... it was pretty close to Christmas and he sent an enormous gift basket to the day, night and weekend shifts.

He was forgiven eventually.

Most EHR/EMR's still show deleted notes in all there glory, so I hope people will be forced to be more professional.