i've only been nursing a short time, but have been struck by how many doctors are so incredibly 'above' being civil to us 'commoners' (aka. nurses) (aka. the ones who do their dirty work). Reminds me of a joke i once heard:
q. What's the difference between a doctor and God?
a. God doesn't think he's a doctor
Thought i'd start a post to share tales of the docs in our lives who want their ass kissed but are more deserving of having it kicked..
I had a patient a few nights ago on IV antibiotics, and soon after i gave her her 8pm dose, her cannula started leaking, so i whipped it out and paged the doctor to come and resite it. When he called back, our conversation went something like:
me: Hi, i have a patient due for antibiotics at 2am who needs her cannula resited. would you be able to come up and do it sometime before then?
him: (in a very irritated voice) what does she need a cannula for?
me: her previous one tissued
him: (sigh) yes, but why does she need a cannula?
me: for IV antibiotics
him: (sigh) does she need it now?
me: no, she's next due at 2am, so anytime before then's fine
him: right. i'll come before 2am then. make sure everything's ready when i get there. (hangs up on me)
I got the IV trolley out, made sure it was stocked, placed it just outside the patient's room, and made sure the night nurses knew to expect him, as he hadn't materialised by 11pm. Next day they told me he arrived, demanded assistance to cannulate this lady, stood looking at the IV trolley SEARCHING for something to be missing, and eventually barked at the night nurse 'who stocked this trolley? where the hell are the scissors?'. The night nurse then proceeded to shift a packet slightly to one side and 'walla!!'
Even the patient said to me that morning 'who was that doctor last night? he thought he was awfully special..'
I had an elderly pt. crash on me a few days ago in med-surg. She had come in a few days before with a hip fracture and the night of surgery she went unresponsive and her blood pressure was in the toilet. It turned out she was in status epilepticus. The primary doc actually came in at 4 am to see her and then helped us push her bed to the ICU, even cracking some jokes on the way about his bed-pushing abilities. This same doc, on another occasion when a co-worker's patient went into new-onset rapid a-fib, met us in the ICU at 4:30 am when we pushed him over. He thanks us when we call him with a patient problem. Think we can clone him? :)
I too am one of the lucky ones. I work in a very busy level one trauma center and our doctors are some of the best around. They assist with whatever needs to be done to get the patient cared for. This is called teamwork.
and i practice in a hospital in Tasmania. Doctors or cannulation certified nurses cannulate, and it has to be recorded who the patient was cannulated by, and cannulation certified nurses have to do a certain number per year to remain 'in practice' and therefore competent. This is so the cannulations can be tracked and we can be sure that cannulations are done safely according to protocol. it also allows us to see trends between the cannulator (if that's a word) and problems with their cannulations.
Dear goats'r'us,
How interesting that you work in Tasmania. From your description that the doctor started the IV, I figured you did not work in the US. Somedays, I wish the doctors here would start the IVs. I am not really familiar with Tasmania, but would love to learn more about it. If you would like an E-mail buddy in the US, my E-mail address is [email protected]. Would love to hear from you!! :balloons:
I am fortunate that 99% of the doctors I work with are very down to earth and pleasant. We have a couple of butt heads (cardiologists) who can be difficult but eventually they do apoligize. I just blow them off, or at least I try !
I have to laugh at this!! I remember one new resident Doc who had been in our hospital 2 months and had already made enemies of most of the nurses. He was just downright a nast Doc who thought we nurses were beneath him. It was time for one of his patients to have thier surgical staples removed and we had no order to do so> So, I called him and told him they needed to come out, could he.... And before I could finish the sentence to include.. "May I have an order to remove them?" ... he shouted some nasty remrks and hung up the phone. Several minutes later, he came over, headed to the patient's room without saying a word to me,. He came back up several minutes later, staples from patient's incision in hand, and stated "See these??? They are now removed! Now I can get back to my more important duties!" You should have seen his face when I told him the nurses usually remove the staples!! It was priceless!! He asked me why I did not stop him and do it myself. I replied to him that we nurses could be his best friends on the unit or we could be his worst nightmare and make his life a living H*LL. He is now a very friendly doc and is actually a good nurse advocate.
i agree where is this country,,,there are times when I wish the physicians did start the IV's,,it would be a great help in an emergency situation where you dont have enough Registered Nurs's or enough LPNC's on. In a small rural hospital where I work I am the only night charge Rn..so if I get a cardiac in..and protacol dictates 2 iv's then I have to husstle to get them started, so I can give the medications the physician orders.. Our doctors that I work with are overall great. They have bad days just like nurse's do....
and i practice in a hospital in Tasmania. Doctors or cannulation certified nurses cannulate, and it has to be recorded who the patient was cannulated by, and cannulation certified nurses have to do a certain number per year to remain 'in practice' and therefore competent. This is so the cannulations can be tracked and we can be sure that cannulations are done safely according to protocol. it also allows us to see trends between the cannulator (if that's a word) and problems with their cannulations.
Hi Tassie, I too am from the land of OZ - Australia that is - where Drs and accredited nurses cannulate, but can you imagine if we start doing all their work what will be left for them to do? :rotfl: All jokes aside, it is a Drs responsibility to ensure every pt is given the treatment needed for their speediest recovery and if this involves a new iv insertion then are they not required to do their job? As a nurse, our duty of care is to our pts and if we request a Drs service it is not to waste his time ( and ours ) it is b/c we need their help! Most of the time I find Drs a wonderful source of entertainment - sorry I meant infomation and as most are almost half my age I am less likely to tolerate any rude behaviour or comments and do not hesitate to put them back in their place. I deserve the respect I show them regardless of what I may think of them personally or professionally - they are no better than anyone else just b/c they have a few letters after their name, no matter what they may think.
Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.
Okay, so I was working at an ER for my preceptorship and I had this patient who needed a cardio consult. My preceptor was busy so it was my patient...and the other nurses gasped when they found out what MD it was.
"oh man...okay don't look directly at him, make sure he has all the stuff he needs, and just nod and agree with him and all will be fine!" they warned me...and looking at their faces they were very seirous! OH goodie!
He went into the room as I was doing another duty and he came up to the nurses area demanding the Nurse. Oh he chewed them all out about how complicated his consults were, and how insensitive of us to not have a RN present right then and there! Oh man was I going to get it...I finished up the cleaning of a hand vs saw wound (saw won!) and rushed there!
He started to tell me how valuable his time was, and how complex his job was...yadda yadda...and I just nodded as I was told (well, had some words swimming in my brain though..LOL!).
Then he rushed into the room with the patient...okay, one thing..in the ER with glass doors, you will want to go ahead and open it first! LOL!!!!!!! I was right behind him to witness and hear the loud thunk as his head hit that door with full force! I reached for the door slide and said "wow, those things just jump out at you don't they...here, let me open that for you". Then to make things fun I fiddled with the door and said "these things can be so 'complicated' sometimes...glad I was here!". (now I did this in a very pleasant poliet respectable voice...guess that is what made it so funny!).
When he hit the door things went dead silent..but after my comment even his fellow MD's busted up laughing so hard!!! One told me it was the best thing to ever happen in the ER! LOL!
Lucky for me it was my last day precepting..LOL!!!!!! It was classic!
Specializes in M/S, OB, Ortho, ICU, Diabetes, QA/PI.
I used to work for an ortho surgeon and we were in a case, talking about people throwing stuff in the OR and he told us about this old mean surgeon he knew when he was in medical school who, in a fit, tried to fling a scalpel to the floor in the OR, during a case - I say "tried" because it didn't reach the floor - it embedded itself in his foot!!! this guy was so tough/mean/stupid that he finished the case and didn't say another word except ones essential to finish the surgery - then, he walked out of the OR, with the scalpel still in the top of his foot, and went somewhere private to remove it...........
my surgeon, however, was awesome to work with/for and he was a huge patient advocate - he got his dream job and moved away and his partners eliminated my job - I miss him still - - and would fly to see him in a heartbeat if I needed major (elective) orthopedic surgery........
I used to work for an ortho surgeon and we were in a case, talking about people throwing stuff in the OR and he told us about this old mean surgeon he knew when he was in medical school who, in a fit, tried to fling a scalpel to the floor in the OR, during a case - I say "tried" because it didn't reach the floor - it embedded itself in his foot!!! this guy was so tough/mean/stupid that he finished the case and didn't say another word except ones essential to finish the surgery - then, he walked out of the OR, with the scalpel still in the top of his foot, and went somewhere private to remove it...........
my surgeon, however, was awesome to work with/for and he was a huge patient advocate - he got his dream job and moved away and his partners eliminated my job - I miss him still - - and would fly to see him in a heartbeat if I needed major (elective) orthopedic surgery........
i've only been nursing a short time, but have been struck by how many doctors are so incredibly 'above' being civil to us 'commoners' (aka. nurses) (aka. the ones who do their dirty work). Reminds me of a joke i once heard:
q. What's the difference between a doctor and God?
a. God doesn't think he's a doctor
Thought i'd start a post to share tales of the docs in our lives who want their ass kissed but are more deserving of having it kicked..
I had a patient a few nights ago on IV antibiotics, and soon after i gave her her 8pm dose, her cannula started leaking, so i whipped it out and paged the doctor to come and resite it. When he called back, our conversation went something like:
me: Hi, i have a patient due for antibiotics at 2am who needs her cannula resited. would you be able to come up and do it sometime before then?
him: (in a very irritated voice) what does she need a cannula for?
me: her previous one tissued
him: (sigh) yes, but why does she need a cannula?
me: for IV antibiotics
him: (sigh) does she need it now?
me: no, she's next due at 2am, so anytime before then's fine
him: right. i'll come before 2am then. make sure everything's ready when i get there. (hangs up on me)
I got the IV trolley out, made sure it was stocked, placed it just outside the patient's room, and made sure the night nurses knew to expect him, as he hadn't materialised by 11pm. Next day they told me he arrived, demanded assistance to cannulate this lady, stood looking at the IV trolley SEARCHING for something to be missing, and eventually barked at the night nurse 'who stocked this trolley? where the hell are the scissors?'. The night nurse then proceeded to shift a packet slightly to one side and 'walla!!'
Even the patient said to me that morning 'who was that doctor last night? he thought he was awfully special..'
How strange to hear nurses don't routinely start their own IVs there. What a pain to have to wait for the doctor. In our hospital, everyone is expected to start their own (or at least attempt if new or not good at it) and we have clinical support nurses who can insert PICC lines right at the bedside (my nursing instructor from school is one of them and she's fabulous).
Melissa
i've only been nursing a short time, but have been struck by how many doctors are so incredibly 'above' being civil to us 'commoners' (aka. nurses) (aka. the ones who do their dirty work). Reminds me of a joke i once heard:
q. What's the difference between a doctor and God?
a. God doesn't think he's a doctor
Thought i'd start a post to share tales of the docs in our lives who want their ass kissed but are more deserving of having it kicked..
I had a patient a few nights ago on IV antibiotics, and soon after i gave her her 8pm dose, her cannula started leaking, so i whipped it out and paged the doctor to come and resite it. When he called back, our conversation went something like:
me: Hi, i have a patient due for antibiotics at 2am who needs her cannula resited. would you be able to come up and do it sometime before then?
him: (in a very irritated voice) what does she need a cannula for?
me: her previous one tissued
him: (sigh) yes, but why does she need a cannula?
me: for IV antibiotics
him: (sigh) does she need it now?
me: no, she's next due at 2am, so anytime before then's fine
him: right. i'll come before 2am then. make sure everything's ready when i get there. (hangs up on me)
I got the IV trolley out, made sure it was stocked, placed it just outside the patient's room, and made sure the night nurses knew to expect him, as he hadn't materialised by 11pm. Next day they told me he arrived, demanded assistance to cannulate this lady, stood looking at the IV trolley SEARCHING for something to be missing, and eventually barked at the night nurse 'who stocked this trolley? where the hell are the scissors?'. The night nurse then proceeded to shift a packet slightly to one side and 'walla!!'
Even the patient said to me that morning 'who was that doctor last night? he thought he was awfully special..'
:balloons:
it is b/c we need their help! Most of the time I find Drs a wonderful source of entertainment - sorry I meant infomation and as most are almost half my age I am less likely to tolerate any rude behaviour or comments and do not hesitate to put them back in their place. I deserve the respect I show them regardless of what I may think of them personally or professionally - they are no better than anyone else just b/c they have a few letters after their name, no matter what they may think.
- and would fly to see him in a heartbeat if I needed major (elective) orthopedic surgery........
grace90, LPN, LVN
763 Posts
I had an elderly pt. crash on me a few days ago in med-surg. She had come in a few days before with a hip fracture and the night of surgery she went unresponsive and her blood pressure was in the toilet. It turned out she was in status epilepticus. The primary doc actually came in at 4 am to see her and then helped us push her bed to the ICU, even cracking some jokes on the way about his bed-pushing abilities. This same doc, on another occasion when a co-worker's patient went into new-onset rapid a-fib, met us in the ICU at 4:30 am when we pushed him over. He thanks us when we call him with a patient problem. Think we can clone him? :)