usernamehere

Again, thank you all so much for your help in this situation! I'm so relieved I could find someone to help me out. As far as surgery being barbaric, I do understand it can be rough and turn one's stomach, but I can 100% ASSURE you that knocking on the patient's bare skull was NOT in any form part of the procedure at hand. Also, despite how detached and jaded the surgeon and anesthesiologists can be, this was downright WRONG. I have been to OR before, in much less serious, critical, much more carefree situations, and they do seem as though they're not even paying attention to the task at hand, talking about golf games, etc. I understand that's how it works, but this was VERY different. It wasn't right. I'll never be able to forgive myself if I don't report their gut-wrenching behavior. Although the circulating nurse didn't participate in any of this, I felt at the time he was professional. I even thanked him in the end "for being nice to my patient," and proceeded to bawl my eyes out while I helped recover him with the nurses in my unit. But you are right, he should have stepped in and defended my patient as well. Maybe he is jaded to their behavior, it probably happens often. I didn't think about that. Thank you all again so much.

Do you think I could just send my documentation to the business conduct, director of surgery, etc? As far as HIPAA violations, would it be wrong to put my patient's initials and condition? "My patient, initials, is a x-year-old with this condition." It's a very heartbreaking case, I know much of the hospital knows about my patient already. This behavior wouldn't be okay in any circumstance, but this situations makes it so much worse.

Thank you SO MUCH for your direction. I feel like I was there for a reason, I just didn't know where to turn or who to talk to. We learn a lot in nursing school, but nobody has taught me how to deal with something like this, and I hope I never have to again. It was just wrong, no excuse for that behavior. I did find a patient safety reporting system that can be anonymous, and I will definitely be looking into the other things mentioned like business conduct, and who else in the hospital I can write to. The first thing I did when I came home was document everything. I WILL be reporting the surgeon and anesthesiologist for their behavior. Thank you so much for your support and direction!!!!

I have been browsing the threads on doctor's verbally abusing the circulating nurses on this thread, but this is very different and I need help. I'm a nursing student and I graduate soon. I have been caring for this one very critical patient, it's a very unfortunate, heartbreaking case. I don't want to go into too much detail. I love where I'm at right now in my clinical, and I love caring for this patient, although more often than not I break down as soon as I walk in the door once I am home and feel totally drained for the following couple days. As you know, as a student, we are encouraged to go with our patient to their procedures, surgeries, whatever, as a learning experience. My patient needs surgery VERY often. Yesterday, he was scheduled for surgery. So I went. This is where I need some advice/counseling, and I figured OR nurses would be the best to ask. I know surgeons, doctors, anesthesiologists can be very jaded and callous. What happened in the OR yesterday was beyond jaded and callous and there is no excuse for the abuse I heard and witnessed towards my patient. As if my patient's situation wasn't horrific and heartbreaking enough, the surgeon and anesthesiologist were making crude statements about "killing" my patient, making sick, awful, heartless jokes about his situation, current condition, unfortunate procedures he was going through in the OR, and during surgery, took the surgical scissors and knocked them on my patient's bare skull repeatedly, loud enough for me to hear across the room. I was absolutely horrified!!! In the beginning, I was 2 seconds away from politely asking them to please not speak about my patient this way, but then I remembered in orientation that we were told that we will often be asked to leave the OR if things go south or whatever. And this is MY beloved, innocent patient, and I realized I was the ONLY person in the room that was on his side, and if this is what they do when someone from the floor is here, what will they do when nobody's here?? This went on for almost 2 hours. I burst into tears as soon as my patient was back in his room and helped to recover him with my nurses and our kind, caring unit doctors. They seemed concerned but kind of brushed it off like, "Well, that's surgery, that's how they cope." It killed me to be witness to the abuse towards my patient, and it has been tearing me apart that I didn't/couldn't say or do anything about it. I am a patient advocate, but what do I do?? I feel like I didn't do anything for him. It was horrible. I'm afraid that day will haunt me for the rest of my life. What can I do now? Who can I talk to? First semester, they told us, "If you ever have any issue with a doctor, nurse, anybody at the hospital, don't even try because you won't win." I refuse to take that as an answer after this, it's not about me, it's about my innocent patient and how he is being treated in the OR. What happens when I'm not there?? Next week is my last week. I need some honest advice. I feel like I did a great disservice to my patient for not speaking up, but I felt like I needed to be a witness to the entire surgery and this unethical behavior, for some reason. Like witnessing a crime, I felt like I needed to be very studious and watch exactly what was going on in case it came up later (weird feeling). Please help, what can I do now? I feel horrible. :crying2::crying2: