Vent, Disrespectful Office Nurse

[lpnflorida]

While at the Oncologists office yesterday. My darlin mentioned to the office nurse due to the nation wide shortage of the generic toprol xl he had been out of his medication for now 2 days. He went on to say he called his doctor the day before leaving a message with the office nurse to call a particular pharmacy who happened to have a few of the pills he needed.

However when I went to the pharmacy after working 12 hours no such prescription had been called in for him. This helpful nurse said she would call over to the Nephro. office as she could get through to them quicker than a patient can. The Nephr. nurse got on the line, she then spoke to darlin, who explain the situation to her. She immmediately said " you mean you haven't had your meds for a week? Why didn't you contact your doctor? ( hello, he did, I had also been calling the pharmacy daily as each day they were trying to get their supply of that med in) And yes, he had left a message the day before on the office answering machine.

She then went on to say that the Nephr. doctor had not ordered that med. Darlin, patiently said, " He most certainly did his name is on the bottle" she continued to argue, but reluctantly agreed to call in prescription. Meanwhile the office nurse in Oncology was horrified, she had been listening. Her comment was I feel like going down to the office and giving her a piece of my mind.

To make a long story short. Darlin was so upset by this Office nurse Kathy in Nephrology that his comment to me when he left his Oncologist was " I feel like never going back to that office ( nephrol.) I tried to calm him, he was very upset. I then said hon, did you tell you you are DR. so and so. He said no he saw no point as she was so rude but that he was going to speak to her boss. It then went into the diatribe of " if any of my office employees had talked to a patient like that I would have fired them" yah right he never fired any employee in 30 years he is too much of a softy.lol

Office nurses, I know your jobs are hard. Please be careful what is said to patients on the phone. Please try not to insult their intelligence.

[anononurse]

We were just having this discussion at work the other day, stemming from patient comments about a particular office. There seems to be a lot of rude & inefficient office staff these days. I would be fired if I acted like some of these nurses. If you take a job dealing w/the public you really need to leave your attitude at the door- meaning don't assume every patient doesn't know what they're talking about! Also, maybe it's the fact that offices are notorious for paying their employees poorly- bottom line is you get what you pay for!