Pet Peeves with Doctors

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Jul 22, 2016

I wish they'd put things back where they belong, charts, equipment, garbage. I feel like I spend a lot of time being a maid, and I resent it.

AutumnApple · Jul 22, 2016

The ones who call every patient a "drug seeker" yet.............give in and order massive PO pain meds on D/C.

Not bold enough to act on it, don't whine to me about it.

Worse still is, they will try to get to the patient through you. They'll tell you to do this/say that because they won't (they know they'd get slammed for it). For example: They'll tell you to do a urine tox screen but not write an order for it. That way, if the patient gets defensive about it and complains................"Well, I didn't write an order for that, no idea why the nurse would try to do it........". phffft

I tell them to deliver their own mail and point out that my name isn't Mercury and there aren't any wings on my shoes.

RainMom · Jul 23, 2016

We have one surgeon who keeps the chart when he puts in the post-op orders & dictates. Not a big deal right? We just have to step out of PACU & grab it when he's done; takes 5 seconds. Except when you go to get it in the dictaton booth & it isn't there...because he went straight into the next case & took it with him...or left it behind the surgical desk...or behind the printer...or in the surgeons' lounge...

downsouthlaff, LPN · Jul 23, 2016

As an LTC Nurse my biggest pet peeves with doctors ? Refusing to schedule PRN meds that the resident takes every day , every time it's due. They are completely okay with it even if the med is being taken every 4 hours on the dot. But they refuse to do us the ultimate favor of scheduling it to prevent us from having to do repetitive PRN nurses notes that state surveyors require to get more detailed by the year.

Cheyenne RN,BSHS · Jul 23, 2016

I tell them to deliver their own mail and point out that my name isn't Mercury and there aren't any wings on my shoes.

LMAO :roflmao:

Back in my much-younger days had a therapist I had grown up with who became a doctor. Wow what a personality change. Knew each others spouses, went to the same small church, babysat each others kids, even shared working with the toddlers at church. Kindest couple I knew. Helped raise money for him to be a missionary and go to medical school.

Long story short, he gets the title MD behind his name and informed me I am to never to call him by his first name. (Now I understand that for work and professionalism and patients you would respect the position if not the person and address them as doctor.)

Things rolled on until he started sitting in the doctor's lounge and would call me to fetch his charts, run ask so-and-so what they had asked him for on rounds cause he forgot, and generally treating me like his personal hired help his attitude was getting a bit much.

Finally one day he was sitting arms length away from a stack of doctor's order sheets. He called me out from behind the nurses station to hand him the doctors order sheets. I lost it. I asked him when he went to medical school did they break his arms? He just looked at me. Then I just sort of unloaded.

(sadly he is not the only one with madonna-god like complex)

SmilingBluEyes · Jul 23, 2016

When they hog our computers and we cannot chart, yet they have an office JUST FOR THEM with THEIR own computers. Totally annoying.

Rexie · Jul 23, 2016

Orders for dilaudid IV Q2 and Ativan IV Q3. Bonus point if they are ordered for doses that require a waste.

macawake, MSN · Jul 23, 2016

What drives you crazy or hampers your work when it comes to doctors' behaviors?

To be perfectly honest, I don't have any pet peeves regarding the "generic" physician. I have had problems with individual coworkers (physicians, nurses, CNAs, physiotherapists, dietary staff etc.) but I tend to view them as exactly that, having differences of opinion on how we should treat each other or how things should be done with a specific individual.

Usually a surgeon...You walk into your patient's room to find their dressing taken down, wound exposed, a mess left on the bed or bedside table. The patient tells you, "oh yes, doctor so and so was just here. He said you'd take care of this.". No communication from Dr. So and so. No attempt to find you and let you know he is planning to check the wound so that you can be there and assist, Ask your questions on the care from there, if you have any, etc....No clear order on how he/she wants the wound dressed, etc...

When I worked in med-surg there was one surgeon who was infamous for doing this. He never even tried to locate the nurse responsible for the patient he was rounding and the patient's room usually looked like a 10 kiloton bomb had gone off in there :eek: Drove me slightly nuts to go into the room finding a patient idly scratching their surgical site with their none too clean fingers.

"Oh nurse I know I probably shouldn't, but it itches". :facepalm:

The funny thing was that despite the patient's room looking like a complete disaster area after the surgeon had rounded, he was known to be a perfectionist and a very gifted surgeon. I was a recent graduate and this was my first nursing job. I decided to ask him if I could attend one of his surgeries (a rather unsual operation scheduled for the next day) and he said I was welcome to. Turns out the guy loved to teach and I actually chose to come in early before evening shifts to watch another couple of his surgeries in the coming months.

Anyway, I told him about what I'd witnessed with his patients after he was done rounding and asked him if he didn't think it would be better if he'd let me know ahead of time so that I could round with him. That would also save me from having to chase him in the OR (which I noticed really annoyed him/broke his stride when I watched the surgeries) to get orders that he could have given me bedside at rounds. That was actually all it took, worked like magic :)

Emboldened by my recent success I decided to take it one step further When rounding with him (and yes, he came and fetched me beforehand) I used one of my feet to discreetly (ahem..) push a trashcan on wheels closer to him... and said with a wink that the trash will be going there eventually anyway... So why not... The guy actually had a sense of humor and lo and behold! he managed to deposit the old surgical dressings directly into the trashcan instead of as previously flinging them all around the room. Victory :)

I can understand why surgeons do this. At least on the floor that I worked they had a very short time to round multiple patients in the morning before starting the first surgery of the day. Most of them went through the floor like a whirlwind on amphetamine. I understand the stress. I think that talking to people will solve most problems though, and in this case I think that it was a win-win for us both.

brownbook · Jul 23, 2016

Surgeons who write few (if any) discharge orders. (Outside of signing off the generic pre-printed discharge order form.) Then you track the surgeon down ask, "When can they remove the dressing, when can they shower, when do you want their follow up appt.?" And the surgeon with an annoyed tone of voice replies, "I told them all of that in their pre-op visit!"

This is AFTER (because I am a smart nurse and have learned) I have asked the patient or family....."Did the Dr. tell you anything about the dressing? When to see him again? (And I love feeling like an idiot to have to ask the patient or family if they might know what the discharge instructions are!) And they say "No", or "I don't remember."

In the surgeons defense I'm sure they did tell the patient, may have even given them their standard post op sheet which covers these questions. But the patient and family forget, the pre-op appt could have been 3 - 4 weeks ago, the patient can be a little overwhelmed with information, paperwork, and lose and forget things!

NursesRmofun, ASN, RN · Jul 23, 2016

Docs that still like to hand write a page of orders instead of using the computer entry. At this point, WE have to enter the page of written orders into the computer...and we don't have time for it!

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · Jul 23, 2016

When they only deal with what they deem their own area and pay no attention to anything else. Like, I'll give him some Tylenol for that fever, and call Neuro for stiff neck, Cardiology for HR of 120 and CCM for BP of 75/30.

Ever heard about "sepsis"?

When they kiss EBM too much. 5 anticoagulants in a single human body b/o each of them was "gold standard" for someone. It did not end good.

When they put in orders and promptly forget about them.

When they treat everyone but another MD like an idiot by definition.