Verbal abuse in the OR

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After only 6 years in the OR as a circulating nurse, I have burned out and retired. The surgeons have humiliated me and my collegues relentlessly. We just have to take it. Personally I felt powerless until someone in P.T. asked me to write up a certain orthopod.....gee....go figure....an orthopod! Between the both of us writing to administration, he was booted from our hospital. He took his entire ortho group and all of his patients with him. Now we are stuck with all kinds of instruments and special orthopedic helmets, batteries, etc we bought especially for them. Not to mention we enlarged an entire OR room for them at an exhorbitant expense. Does it pay to write them up? I say yes, but we need to go further with it. I've written newspaper columnists about this problem, 20/20 and MSNBC Investigates. Any other ideas from you?

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
Carry a digital microrecorder. They're cheap. Play hardball if that's what he wants. No one has to know you carry it, just transfer the day's events to tape, leave it anonymously in the O/R director's and the surgeon's box.

Check state laws. Anonymous drop-off doesn't mean you will never get caught.

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I did check laws...recording in some states is considered to be a form of 'keeping notes'.

And I agree, one must be careful. There are a variety of ways of being careful if you want to think about it.

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