"A monkey can be trained to do what you nurses do"

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yes. that is exactly what i heard a cardiologist tell a cath lab nurse when i took a patient having an acute MI to the cath lab. i was completely and utterly floored by his comment. apparently the room was not prepared to receive the patient and the doc had a fit. one nurse looked like she was near tears. another just walked out. we all were in front of the patient so i think the nurses did not want to confront the doc right there at that moment. when he was out the patients view he slammed down the charts and slammed doors. i coudn't believe the behavior. i know some docs can be nasty, but i just can't see myself putting up with such humiliation. people do what you allow them to and apparently this doc hasn't run across the right nurse yet. if a monkey can do what nurses do, then why isn't he doing it? i mentioned the incidence to my nursing sup. and she was angry and promised to look into it. since i only work ED i felt uncomfortable getting directly involved. how have you guys dealt with situations like this?

Doctors will do whatever they can get away with.

Once they were out of the patient's earshot and procedures done, she should have informed him that that would be HIS LAST little temper tantrum directed at her and that she would not stand for his verbal abuse.

He's creating a hostile work environment.

Nurses: stand up for yourselves, calmly and professionally! :angryfire

I saw a doctor jerk a chart out of a nurses hand and fling the chart down the hall. Of course she was the one who had to go fetch it.

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It's ufortunate that so many nurses have seen this behavior from some MD's. The best you can do is to tell the doc that his behavior is not appropriate and you would be glad to talk with him after the procedure. The important thing to remember is the patient. If the doc is a jerk you must be profesional for the patients sake.

Funny story. 1st I was young when this happened and it may not have been the best response but...

My first job was on a very busy Med/Onc ward. As I exited a patients room I heard loud yelling from the nurses station. A 4th year Resident was browbeating a new nurse. He was literaly screaming at her inches from her face. He was angry because a blood test reasult was not on the chart. He wouldn't let the nurse talk , he just kept screaming at her and she stood there crying. The other staff at the station were staring at this in shock , but noboby was doing anything. I got very pissed . I went to the resident and tapped him on the shoulder. He spun quickly around obviously ready to have a go at me. When he spun around he was staring at my...sternum. At the time I was the only male nurse working on the wards in my hospital. The last thing he expected was to be confronted with a 6' 220lb bearded nurse with an attitude.I leaned in and told him " that was my job you got a problem you deal with me".He started to stammer and the look on his face was so comical I started to laugh, he kept backing up and stammering the other staff began to laugh, and most important, as he stormed off muttering weakly "just forget it" , the new nurse was able to smile and thanked me for standing up for her.

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I saw a doctor jerk a chart out of a nurses hand and fling the chart down the hall. Of course she was the one who had to go fetch it.[/QUOTE]

HA! I wouldn't have!

This is why Doctors get by with this stuff. Nurses won't stand up for themselves.

I would've told him he knew where it was, he threw it there, and if he wanted it he could prance down the ###### hall and GET IT! :rolleyes:

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Assertiveness may be hard but it is a skill that everyone can learn! I highly recommend the following book by Manuel Smith, PhD, "When I Say No I Feel Guilty."

It is an assertiveness training classic. It is available in paperback and is an easy read. I first read this book in the late 80s and learned so much from it.

Being publicly berated by an obnoxious MD resident is a humiliating and embarrassing experience that could drive many people to tears BUT crying in front of that resident is counter-productive and a sign of having no assertiveness skills. The resident's behavior is unacceptable and must be confronted.

Many years ago, during my "unassertive phase" I was having difficulty with a particular charge nurse. My supervisor had encouraged me to appropriately confront this charge nurse and was coaching me on how to do so. She deliberately chose to not intervene because she wanted me to master some skills in being assertive. I still remember here words from 12 years ago. She asked me, "What is holding you back from confronting her, she clearly has treated you in an unprofessional manner?" After much soul searching I had to admit that the answer was I didn't want to have a confrontation that would reinforce this charge nurse "not liking me." My supervisor said to me, "I'm not paying you to be liked.....I'm paying you to do a job which is to advocate for your patients.......this charge nurse is interfering with your job.....whether or not she likes you is not relevant." I did finally confront the charge nurse and from that point forward, our relationship blossommed into one of mutual respect and admiration.

I believe in Smith's book, he talks about this myth that we are all raised with....the myth that "all people must like us."

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my hospital lets us call a CODE on this butt heads. it is called Code "prince charming." If a doc is being abusive, verbal or otherwise, we are able to call a code and all of the nursing managers and the hospital administrators rush in to talk the doc down. (and remind him that he can lose privilages?) Anyway, it works.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

When I first started in the PICU where I used to work, I was warned about the behaviour of one of the intensivists, Dr. F. She would belittle and berate the staff about nothing and everything, in front of whomever was around, until she ran out of steam. She seemed to delight in intimidating and making nurses, residents and RTs cry. I had first met this doc many years before when she was a pediatric resident and was providing care for my son. The first time we met in the PICU, she recognized me but couldn't exactly place me. When I reminded her that I'm "Adam's mom" (all I needed to say, since he was something of a favourite at that hospital), she immediately nodded and asked about him. She was very careful not to show me her Dr. Jeckyll side for a very long time, but one day, she slipped...

We had a patient with meningococcemia who had unfortunately suffered serious damage to her foot and was undergoing multiple ortho and plastics procedures to preserve as much as possible. She was due for another trip to the OR soon, and I'd spoken to the orthopedist already that day about the plan for her. During rounds, Dr. F. was carrying on a side conversation with someone about something unrelated. We all were standing outside my room, waiting for her conversation to finish so I could give report on my patient. One of our residents took me aside to ask me what Dr. M had in mind for our little girl, and I started to answer..."I spoke to him a little while ago," and didn't get to finish because Dr. F jumped in, practically yelling, "Spoke to him who? Could be ortho, or plastics or ID or anybody!!!! Spoke to who?" Not being a shrinking violet, I looked her in the eye and very calmly said, "I'm sorry, I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to J... but if you can't wait until I get there in report, it was Dr. M that I spoke to and he plans to..." She leaned toward me, her face went as red as humanly possible, her neck veins stood out like rope and she sputtered for several seconds. I stood my ground. Then she said, "Oh. Well, that's good then," and backed up. Rounds went very quickly after that and she never raised her voice to me again.

After rounds were finished, the charge nurse came to my bedside and patted me on the back. "You Fiona'd Fiona!! Good for you! Maybe you should do an inservice!" But really, all it took was to be assertive.

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Specializes in oncology, surgical stepdown, ACLS & OCN.

To angel337

The dr. your talking about, reminds me of one of the attendings at our hospital, he would talk to nurses as if they were beneath him, until one day he said the wrong thing to a nurse on our unit. She wrote up the dr., sent it to the clinical manag. and the vice president of nsg. that Dr. had to apologize to the nurse, and he later joined a comittee that was started for appropiate communication between dr.'s and nurses.

He is now very pleasant to all the nurse and talks to them w/ respect

There is no room for that behavior from docs, they need to realize that w/o nurses, they could not do surgery nor could they hospitalize their patients!

scooterRN52

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xxxxx

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When he spun around he was staring at my...sternum. At the time I was the only male nurse working on the wards in my hospital. The last thing he expected was to be confronted with a 6' 220lb bearded nurse with an attitude.I leaned in and told him " that was my job you got a problem you deal with me".He started to stammer and the look on his face was so comical I started to laugh, he kept backing up and stammering the other staff began to laugh, and most important, as he stormed off muttering weakly "just forget it" , the new nurse was able to smile and thanked me for standing up for her.
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I have seen this type scenario over and over. What it says to me is this is mostly a issue of males who feel its OK to bully females. These same bully docs will back down to a male nurse...and many docs treat the male nurses differently all around. Sexism at its worst.

And just like abused spouses, it takes the women to say no more. Azzes will behave like azzes if they're allowed to.

Doctor's bad behaviors must be confronted or it will never change. Thanks for standing up for your coworker, hope next time it happened she didn't just stand there and cry, but was willing to defend herself based on your example.

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I have seen this type scenario over and over. What it says to me is this is mostly a issue of males who feel its OK to bully females. These same bully docs will back down to a male nurse...and many docs treat the male nurses differently all around. Sexism at its worst.

And just like abused spouses, it takes the women to say no more. Azzes will behave like azzes if they're allowed to.

Doctor's bad behaviors must be confronted or it will never change. Thanks for standing up for your coworker, hope next time it happened she didn't just stand there and cry, but was willing to defend herself based on your example.

Well said mattsmom - I had the exact same thought. It would be nice if these abusive docs would be as worried about being seen for the lame, sexist, unprofessional idiots they are as they seem to be about getting their idiotic azzes kicked.

It is absolutely NO DIFFERENT from other forms of abuse - picking on something or someone weaker than themselves (so they can feel like BIG MEN), but when someone their own size (or maybe a little bigger :) ) comes along - they run away like the pathetic little babies they are.

Actually, there is a difference, other forms of abuse can be AND ARE prosecuted. Nurse vs. Doctor would be laughed out of court because our dumb-azzed society just expects us to take it. Not to mention managers and administrators - they want us to take it with smiles on our faces.

Not this nurse.

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That is all to true. It was even more true years ago when this happened. There is still a long way to go. My mom is a nurse(retired) and she raised me and my sisters as a single parent. I think that was what made me confront the doc like I did( I was 22 at the time).I am an easy going person but I saw red when that doc was so disrespectful to a nurse.I have handeled it a little better since then .I will to let the doc know my problem with abusive behavior is nurse to doc, not guy to guy, and it will not be tolerated. Nobody ever has to tolerate being verbaly abused.

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I have seen this type scenario over and over. What it says to me is this is mostly a issue of males who feel its OK to bully females. These same bully docs will back down to a male nurse...and many docs treat the male nurses differently all around. Sexism at its worst.

And just like abused spouses, it takes the women to say no more. Azzes will behave like azzes if they're allowed to.

Doctor's bad behaviors must be confronted or it will never change. Thanks for standing up for your coworker, hope next time it happened she didn't just stand there and cry, but was willing to defend herself based on your example.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

my hospital lets us call a CODE on this butt heads. it is called Code "prince charming." If a doc is being abusive, verbal or otherwise, we are able to call a code and all of the nursing managers and the hospital administrators rush in to talk the doc down. (and remind him that he can lose privilages?) Anyway, it works.

Great idea, wish they'd do that everywhere!

"The dr. your talking about, reminds me of one of the attendings at our hospital, he would talk to nurses as if they were beneath him, until one day he said the wrong thing to a nurse on our unit. She wrote up the dr., sent it to the clinical manag. and the vice president of nsg. that Dr. had to apologize to the nurse"

Never happen in a million years around here. There's no way they'd make a Dr. apologize to a (gasp!) nurse?!

Nope.

The time to handle it is when it happens.....else they'll do it again and again.

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