Physician Bullying of Nurses Reaching Epidemic Levels

[DoGoodThenGo]

A doctor-bully epidemic is jeopardizing both nurses and patients. In news reports and hospital break rooms, stories abound of physicians berating nurses, hurling profanities, or even physically threatening or assaulting them. Doctors are shoving ...

Read Article in its entirety:

Doctors bully nurses: Hospital mistreatment is a danger to patient health.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

We should be careful to delineate whether we are speaking of the author of the Slate.com article referenced by the OP - Alexandra Robbins - or the AN member who wrote the AN article on which this thread is based.

What article did AN member dogoodthengo write? The original post in this thread, is a copy and paste of the first paragraph of Alexandra Robbins article.

[SteelGrey]

If you've ever worked with people, you most likely have seen them displaying poor behavior- whether it be cursing, name calling, yelling, or throwing things. This is especially common and more exaggerated in high stress/pressure fields.

It's poor behavior and yeah it's unacceptable, but it does happen and not just between the hospital staff hierarchy.

We can't all be socially well adjusted

[SubSippi]

It may not always be this pronounced but there is a disturbing dynamic. My brother's friend, who is neurosurgeon, visited with us for the weekend and during a conversation casually referred to instances where he in essence hazed new nurses by telling them they had killed a patient and he also kept on referring to them saying "my nurses" as if they are his underlings. Nothing is universal but there is a pervasive sense of entitlement and privilege among physicians.

There's a doc I work with that'll walk in and say, "Hi girls!" It makes me want to kick him in the shins.

[Guest219794]

We took the word "epidemic" for title of this thread from the first paragraph of linked article. It was neither our intention nor design to inflame, incite, insult or otherwise cause injury. Certainly did not expect to be attacked for doing so.

I wouldn't worry about having caused any injury. I disagree with your premise, but it didn't hurt me in any way. Or inflame or incite, come to think about it. As far as being attacked? If the negative responses here are what you consider an attack, that could explain why you might feel there is a lot of bullying.

Since a majority of the responding posters appear not to have encountered negative behavior from a physician nor likewise witnessed it against other nurses, decided to see what else was out there independent of the Slate article and the book from which it was drawn.

Not sure where you get that the majority of posters have not encountered negative behavior from a a physician. It's just that not all negative behavior is bullying, any more than a negative response to your premise is an attack.

Workplace bullying of general surgery residents by nurses. - PubMed - NCBI

This was truly a bizarre study. It is based solely on the perception of the resident. The chief form of bullying was the resident's perception that there was " Ignoring of recommendations or orders by nurses occurs on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis ". The article almost seemed like it was out of Gomerblog.

In the interests of full disclosure the above link was provided by: Bully doctor "epidemic" | Student Doctor Network

which was happily provided by a physician friend.

Your title was controversial. Probably shouldn't be surprised by the controversy.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

There's a doc I work with that'll walk in and say, "Hi girls!" It makes me want to kick him in the shins.

Our docs are smart enough to call us 'ladies'.

[Alnitak7]

While I don't know the technical definition, in my mind bullying requires a power dynamic.

Let's say Dr Schmuck has not had the foresight....The other nurses warn me about how cranky Dr Schmuck can be when he is woken up. I call Dr Schmuck, and he is not just cranky, but downright abusive. This is not bullying; its Dr Schmuck being a schmuck. If he has a temper tantrum.

I can't control Dr Schmuck, but I can control how his actions affect me. I can also control how I react.

I was comparing notes with someone and we both saw it the same way. "When I wake up in the morning, my vocal cords are paralyzed, I can't get my eyes open and I can barely even think..."

Speaking strictly for myself, when I'm woken up at night, there are times when my ears close up and I literally can't hear what people are saying to me. There have been times when a patient wakes me up for help and I can't hear them.

I always dread waking a doctor up or waking up a nursing supervisor when working in private home care. I resent that this ever should be part of my job.

The doctors and R.N. supervisors really need to make arrangements between themselves for someone who is awake at night or who wakes up with a smile to take nighttime calls.

[Jules A, MSN]

There's a doc I work with that'll walk in and say, "Hi girls!" It makes me want to kick him in the shins.

Heck at my point in this life cycle even if someone is being smart I appreciate being addressed as a girl, lol.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Unfortunately,this is an issue that has always been present,and sadly enough is still happening alot,not only within our nursing profession,but with the patients as well.It is a situation that we can no longer continue to deny it,or continue tolerating it anymore,and that is why we all have to be united,so we can help to stop many of these bully,and arrogant doctors from abusing,and disrespecting our nursing profession. This kind of abuse,and injustice has to be stopped,and these doctors should be required to take mandatory anger management classes,including psychological therapy,among other things.And if they aren't fit to be doctors,then they should simply resign,go work in another profession,or somewhere else,and not continue abusing,and degrading other people,just because of their medical title,and status. Our beautiful,and blessed nursing profession,is not like a horse stable,where people can trample our rights,and degrade our profession,whenever they feel like doing so.It's really a shame,and pathetic,to see many ignorant nurses out there,not having the courage,or conscience to come forward,and report all these abuses. We simply can't allow this kind of negative behavior,to continue happening in our profession,period!

Just because some of us have not had the same experience as the OP does not mean we are lacking in courage or conscience, nor are we ignorant.

You've been a member here for over a year and a half. If you're so passionate on this topic, it seems strange that you chose this thread for your first post.

[ixchel]

Have you guys noticed this "The Nurses" author is writing articles for all of the popular forward-on-social-media-worthy websites? This is the second one I've seen today. The one I saw this morning wasn't forwarded by a single nurse friend that I have on Facebook probably because it was as unfounded as this article seems to be. It's dramatized....sort of Jerry Springered.

I am very thankful to be surrounded by doctors who are quite supportive of the nursing staff and who treat us well. I've only had one get snappy with me, and in all fairness, it was the middle of the night and I was reporting a lab value that he and I both knew he wasn't going to actually come to the hospital and do anything about. It was a pointless but required phone call.

A couple of weeks ago, we were short staffed and taking one more patient than usual. Somehow I was lucky enough to get all but one of my patients with one of my favorite docs. My fifth patient was with an MD that truly makes us all cringe. But the MD who had my other 4 is amazing. The patients, however, not so much. All four were borderline ICU-worthy (I work step-down), but DNR/I, so essentially the MD and I spent the day chasing each other in circles, doing everything we could. That night, I was giving report and an oncoming nurse that I gave report to asked why I hadn't given a specific med yet (it was warfarin, and lab was late getting the INR resulted). This MD interrupted saying the nurse needed to take it easy on me because we'd just had a horrible day. I loved her for saying that. I hate giving report on a patient with things still left undone. I feel like a failure when I do. The MD helped validate my shortfall, and I appreciated it more than I could express at that exact moment.

I have another favorite who comes in, sits down with patients, and truly has conversations with them, and loves it when we (the nurses) like to be there for that. And he's the first to say that he feels like all he does is click a button, and we do the real work. (Truly, I believe our hospitalists work their tails off, but it feels good to be appreciated, nonetheless.)

Another great one actually listens. I mean REALLY listens. I had a family convince him the patient was unable to make her own decisions. I spoke to him privately and asked him to have a conversation with the patient first. She wanted to go home to die, and the family was fighting it. He talked to her, realized the family was needing a Come to Jesus talk, and ultimately, the patient was sent home with hospice, at the patient's request and the family's blessing. That was a complicated day to say the least. Anyway, the doctor came to me later and expressed surprise because he really didn't realize how oriented she truly was, and gratitude that I spoke up.

There are two total MDs, between private practice, specialists and hospitalists, that I don't like as much. One is very new and terrified of her shadow, and so I think she's afraid to trust others. The other is so incredibly lazy, I can't believe he hasn't killed anyone or been fired for his uselessness. Hopefully the latter happens before the former. The rest of the MDs have such a respectful and helpful attitude toward us, and we treat them with equal respect. I genuinely love the people I work with.

[elkpark]

There's a doc I work with that'll walk in and say, "Hi girls!" It makes me want to kick him in the shins.

I totally agree that being called a "girl" makes me grind my teeth but, at the same time, I don't consider that bullying or abuse.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

What article did AN member dogoodthengo write? The original post in this thread, is a copy and paste of the first paragraph of Alexandra Robbins article.

You are correct - I failed to distinguish the limitations of the AN phone app ... and therefore misread what was essentially re-blogged by the OP under the heading "Nursing News" as another in what IMO have been a recent spate of melodramatic "articles" which are supposed to provide more substantive content to AN, in return for actual compensation for the writer(s).

My apologies for creating confusion.

[amzyRN]

I've experienced this at my last job and I was shocked because the facility I was before never had MD's like that. We had some grouchy ones, but none that were true bullies. This cardiologist at my last job would pick a fight with the nurses because she had a need for conflict. She would call people stupid, speak in a degrading tone of voice as if she was talking to a dog, it was awful. I was shocked. She was like this with most of the nursing staff, but had specific people who she would target. She was constantly written up and nothing happened. No wonder this place had constant staff turnover. This is one of the reasons I left the job, or was happy to take another one. I couldn't tolerate that type of behavior and if I experienced it again would probably have to leave again if nothing happened.