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

[Skayda]

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?

THANK YOU!!! This is exactly what happened!! I am glad someone gets it!

[Skayda]

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.

I should have worded it better. I was still upset when I wrote it out but I was following my boss's orders. It was her order to send the resident out to the ER. Since I am the only one on the premises I had to call the paramedics to come get the resident as per my boss's orders to me over the phone after she called me to ask how the resident was doing with her knee and walking and if it's gotten worse or stayed the same and since it was going on four days of worsening knee buckling and weakness and not being able to lift her foot to walk, etc, my boss deemed it necessary to have me call and summon the paramedics to take the resident in to be checked out and then, after she was in the ER my boss called me and told me that I needed to call the hospital and make sure they run "every possible x-ray, scan and blood test available before they discharge her" and told me to repeat it word for word so I wouldn't forget anything. I did not like being put in that position and it did not feel right to me. And I also don't think it was right for my boss to be demanded of the ER staff either since, even though she owns and runs an adult family home she is the same level as I am as a caregiver; we are both Nurses Aides-Registed (NAR) pretty much the bottom of the totem pole well other than like Candy Stripers, of healthcare workers.

[mindyfromcali]

We get put into these situations all the time, and then blamed for the outcome. What I've learned to do is take everything with a grain of salt. They can't have it both ways. Nurses ask me to do stuff all the time that is "out of my scope of practice" and if it's reasonable, and we have a good working relationship, I'll do it. (this definitely doesn't include passing meds) That being said, the same people who I don't have a good working relationship with will ask me to do that sort of stuff, and then tell me I'm "just a CNA" when it's convenient for them.

My lesson after working this long in nursing is to try to get along with the nurses as best as possible, but at the same time not let them badger me into doing anything I'm uncomfortable with that is not in my job description. It sounds like you did the right thing, listening to your boss. Doctors can be pretty crabby. I wouldn't take anything they say too personally.

Most of the time when I answer a phone at work and it's a doctor, they get impatient that I don't know why they were paged and who paged them. The first 30 seconds or so is me trying to figure that out and them sighing on the phone because I'm wasting their precious doctor time. Sorry I answered the phone and tried to be helpful

(Disclaimer: There are few nurses I don't get along with, and the ones I don't, it's not just me.)

[Skayda]

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.

I did do all that as per my instructions because part of my boss wanting me to "make sure they do such and such" was to find out how the resident was doing and I was speaking at first with the nurse but then she said "Hold on. You need to speak with the doctor." And so that's how the doctor was bothered.

[Skayda]

We get put into these situations all the time, and then blamed for the outcome. What I've learned to do is take everything with a grain of salt. They can't have it both ways. Nurses ask me to do stuff all the time that is "out of my scope of practice" and if it's reasonable, and we have a good working relationship, I'll do it. (this definitely doesn't include passing meds) That being said, the same people who I don't have a good working relationship with will ask me to do that sort of stuff, and then tell me I'm "just a CNA" when it's convenient for them.

My lesson after working this long in nursing is to try to get along with the nurses as best as possible, but at the same time not let them badger me into doing anything I'm uncomfortable with that is not in my job description. It sounds like you did the right thing, listening to your boss. Doctors can be pretty crabby. I wouldn't take anything they say too personally.

Most of the time when I answer a phone at work and it's a doctor, they get impatient that I don't know why they were paged and who paged them. The first 30 seconds or so is me trying to figure that out and them sighing on the phone because I'm wasting their precious doctor time. Sorry I answered the phone and tried to be helpful

(Disclaimer: There are few nurses I don't get along with, and the ones I don't, it's not just me.)

I work in an adult family home. There are no nurses on staff (other than the delegating nurse who comes in once a month to check on the residents and delegate a new caregiver/resident/task if /when needed and right now over the past two months there has just myself and the owner of the adult family home, both of us are NARs, and we pass out meds every day/eve/bedtime. They come in blister packs marked with residents' names and AM/NOON/PM/BED and PRN and we pop them out into Dixie cups and set them on the table one by one for each resident to take with their meals.

[mindyfromcali]

I work in an adult family home. There are no nurses on staff (other than the delegating nurse who comes in once a month to check on the residents and delegate a new caregiver/resident/task if /when needed and right now over the past two months there has just myself and the owner of the adult family home, both of us are NARs, and we pass out meds every day/eve/bedtime. They come in blister packs marked with residents' names and AM/NOON/PM/BED and PRN and we pop them out into Dixie cups and set them on the table one by one for each resident to take with their meals.

Oh ok, that sounds pretty chill. I worked home health for a few months a while back and had to do medication reminders as well.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Nobody likes being told how to do their job. Especially by an outsider underling...... Your boss should have called them her/himself.

[Skayda]

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.

Yeah in the AFH I work at its just me when I am on shift from Friday night til Monday am and my boss, who is a NAR like me, is the one on-call who makes all the decisions, (there is a delegating nurse but she only comes around once a month or so and I mentioned to my boss that we should probably call her and update her about the resident but my boss told me not to that she would handle it), and it was her decision to tell me to call the paramedics and get the resident to the ER and also her decision to have me call and get an update and then repeat her list of demands to the nurse who thought it was a good idea to hand the phone over to the doctor instead. And we pass out perscribed meds to our residents every day.

[Skayda]

Nobody likes being told how to do their job. Especially by an outsider underling...... Your boss should have called them her/himself.

I agree! And she did. I found out cause she called me back and was all; "Omg! They are are so rude!!" to me about whatever they said to her when she did the calling herself.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Next time h=just give them info they may need, but not have and then ASK if they could do A,B, C....

They may or may not still be rude........:rotfl:

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

So was this an als run or a call for transport bls run? Did you specify what you wanted or really say "run all possible xrays, tests, etc"? Do y'all even know what that request means?

ER docs don't like being told how to do their job. ER nurses don't like it either.

[funtimes]

I work as a CNA on a med/surg unit, where I see hospitalists and surgeons all the time. Even then about the only interaction I have with them is talking about the weather or how the local sports teams are doing. Anything they need to know they get from labs, the patient chart, RNs, supervisors, and the patient themselves. Not surprised one of them got snippy when told by a CNA to run certain tests lol.

Live and learn I guess.