Rude ED Doctors

[Skayda]

Okay, I understand how busy the ED can be but as a nursing assistant working in an AFH who just sent off a resident with worsening leg/knee trouble I am concerned with the care and treatment she will be receiving at the hospital and my boss told me to call and make sure that they ran a battery of tests and X-Rays to cover all our bases before they send her home. But, when the nurse put me on the phone with the doctor and I repeated what my boss told me to say she goes; "We were going to do that anyway." really condescending and hung up on me. Just because you may be swamped down in "the pit" is no reason to rude to those involved with you patient's care! I know there are a lot of good, polite doctors out there and the rude ones put them in a bad light.

Sorry for the vent.

~Ami

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

So you as a CNA, actually called the ER and told the doc how to do her job? Pretty ballsy.

The ER doesn't cover YOUR bases. We work up the pt based on the complaint, pt hx, the exam and the results of the tests we choose to run.

And exactly what were your orders to the doc?

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Calling the ED and telling the Doc what tests to run LOL, so outside the scope of a CNA. I think she did you a favor when she hung up, Im sure what came next would be much worse..

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

I'm confused why someone would deem it appropriate to call & tell the ED Doc what tests to run. :uhoh21::uhoh21: Lol, hanging up was a heck of lot better than having the doc verbally annihilate you (which I would have done if I were in the doc's shoes, I'm super snarky lolol).

[ImKosher]

Like others have said, way out of your scope of practice. You better be careful next time your supervisor asks you to do something like that again. I think you need to check out your scope of practice again.

[ComeTogether, LPN]

Docs can be really rude on the phone. Don't take it personally. I would call docs a lot as a clinical secretary but never for something like to clarify a test etc because only an RN can do that as she then would have to write a verbal order if intact the doc agreed. So I'm a little confused too.

[nursel56]

Something must be missing from this account, because on the surface it's just so inappropriate. I doubt you'd find many nurses who would get on the phone and tell the ED doc what tests to order. Being hung up on was actually rather tame compared to what could've happened.

[duskyjewel]

Y'all are verbally flaying the wrong person, here. She followed her boss's orders. The RN who told her to call and say this is the jerk who caused this problem. Like the time an RN told me to call Respiratory and let them know that so-and-so's trach needed suctioning, and the RT responded with, "And WHO is this?" in the snottiest, most condescending manner she could muster. I am an aide, it is not my place to be calling her and telling her that. I was upset by how I was treated, but really, the whole thing was caused by an RN who pawned her job off on me.

So what was she supposed to do? Tell her boss to pound sand, because this is outside her scope? How long do you think she would stay employed if she did that?

[nursel56]

The way it's worded it sounded more like "I" (the CNA)sent the patient out, which is a bit confusing, and that she went to her boss with her concerns that the ED doc wouldn't determine the patient's needs properly, so the boss told her to call. Maybe the boss isn't a nurse. If she was she put the OP way out on a limb, and yeah, it would've been unfair. It's also a bit odd that the ED nurse didn't find out what the call was about before putting her on the phone with the doctor.

[EMTtoRNinVA, MSN, RN]

Here in my neck of the woods at some assisted living facilities the RN goes home at 1700 and is on call afterwards. We have CNAs and Med Techs. Med Techs pass meds that are prescribed but can't initiate to titrate ( as in oxygen for hypoxia ). Though I agree the OP seems to have left something out and portrays an inappropriate action, I have personally dealt with many of these NH pt who are sent out by an aide and report is called to that same aide before returning the patient. Doesn't make it right, just another thing to scratch your head about.

[Pets to People]

You should have called to get an "update" on "how the pt's doing" and see what they have done so far and/or what their plans are, which you could have asked the nurse instead of bothering the doctor. I am surprised the doc even got on the phone with you at all.

[Skayda]

So you as a CNA, actually called the ER and told the doc how to do her job? Pretty ballsy.

The ER doesn't cover YOUR bases. We work up the pt based on the complaint, pt hx, the exam and the results of the tests we choose to run.

And exactly what were your orders to the doc?

First of all they weren't MY ORDERS but what my boss told me to say word for word and considering the fact that if I did not call them as per MY INSTRUCTIONS from MY BOSS I would have been written up for INSUBORDINATION I would think the "ballsy" one would be my boss not me! I really did not want to bother them but I was instructed to repeat word for word what my boss told me to call and ask about. I still think that she, the ER doctor was rude and there was no need for it for someone just DOING WHAT SHE WAS TOLD to do by the Adult Family Home provider. I think it was a case of "shoot the messager" really because, like I said, that is what I was. In fact my boss finally called them herself and probably ****** them off even more herself but I was happy to be out of the firing range!