Verbally Abusive Surgeon in the Operating Room

[Lorodz]

A little background about me.

I am an Australian RN and have been working in the operating room for 4-5 years. My specialty is orthopaedics- specifically hip and knee joints.

The surgeons I work with are very nice, patient and lovely. However there is this one surgeon who just makes me feel so bad and incompetent. (I am not stupid and I am a very highly capable operating room nurse) The mean surgeon has a known reputation in the industry as very rude. But people tell me that he is "very nice" kind hearted and warm, it is just that when he steps into the operating room he changes his behavior.

The surgeon screams a lot he expects you to know everything he likes! there will be times where he would just reach his hand out and expect you to hand him what he wants (I've only worked for this guy for less than a year).

I would cite some examples of his rude attitude in the theatre

-As I am not very familiar with the system he uses, I am very dependent of the rep. One time the rep was trying to give some instructions to me and I didn't hear what the surgeon wanted (to make things worst we are wearing this astronaut like suits), he started lashing at me for not listening and justifies why he gets angry. (The rep and I were just trying to get the next jig ready)

-just today, he screamed at me for not knowing the next step (it's my first time doing an ACL with him) he insisted that I would have known what the next step is if I was just watching what he was doing. This is absurd as much as I want to watch what he was doing, as a scrub RN, I need to organize what he needs next.

-he lifted the patient's leg and expected me to know what to do. (He wanted me to pull the drapes) he then yelled at me for just standing there and not doing anything! He could have simply told me to pull the linen to the right so as to stop it from misaligning. (Again I have only worked with this guy for less than a year (and usually twice a week)

the abusive stories just go on and on. The management knows about it just doesn't do anything about it (they consider surgeons as customers and they need them to survive, $$$ nurses are not prioritised)

the reason why I'm posting this is I need some advice on what to do. What I have done so far, is to write down what I have learnt that day so that I would be improving next time. (Unfortunately senior nurses told me that no matter how much I perfect what I do there is no perfection for him, he would always look for a mistake, and if I would not make any mistake, he would do something so that I would make a mistake)

his rude attitude and behavior is eating me and it has affected my relationship with my partner. In addition, my partner said that I sometimes sleep talk and start cursing while Im asleep. This usually happens whenever I finish a bad day at work. Obviously, I'm having nightmares of what happened.

Any advice?

thanks.