What do you do when/if a Doctor or other nurse curses you out?

[Di Deanna]

are they seriously allowed to do that?

i'm not a nurse yet, but i can't imagine sitting there and allowing a doctor or nurse to curse at me.

that is super abusive, imo.

i can't imagine that being acceptable. what have your reactions been when this happens?

[CBsMommy]

Holy geez! How did you ever work it out with someone who shoved you into a table? There would be no way! I would've called the police as well and instead of going up the chain of command, I would've walked straight to HR, with witness in tow. It is illegal in this country to be assaulted, no matter where you are! That is crazy!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

holy geez! how did you ever work it out with someone who shoved you into a table? there would be no way! i would've called the police as well and instead of going up the chain of command, i would've walked straight to hr, with witness in tow. it is illegal in this country to be assaulted, no matter where you are! that is crazy!

witness and i were in the middle of a procedure, and there was no one else to cover the patient. he banned the anm from the room and we made plans to go to hr the next day. unfortunately, he died that night, and in the tragedy of his passing, my bruises were forgotten. then the anm was send to anger management classes, her meds got adjusted properly, and she was very sorry and far more pleasant to have around. dh, to this day, believes she was a friend of his. (i'm thinking a real friend wouldn't treat your wife that way, but i digress.)

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

The only time I've ever lost my temper on the job was during a code. We knew that another unit was....ahem...not up to the task. My charge nurse sent me to assist until the ICU nurse got there (in the middle of the night, it's not like we've got tons of spare hands around to go to a code, and we knew the ICU nurse couldn't come until she was backfilled by an ER nurse because they were so short). So I take off running. I hit the room, and nobody's performing CPR, nobody's got the code cart, the RT has left to get an ambu bag because none of the nurses on the floor have brought one to the room. They're just standing around like students at their first code. I actually asked them, "this person is a full code, right?" because no one was doing anything. One finally comes up and is looking over my shoulder as I'm doing compressions -- not to help, not to take over, just a "watcha doin'" kinda thing, and I snapped, "Do something or get the H*** out of the way."

The pt didn't make it -- I honestly think she'd been down a while, but she was still warm, and still had a little faint thrill in her femoral artery but nothing above the waist when I started CPR. In that case, you don't just decide to stand there and wait for her to reach room temperature. I mean, she was someone's grandma, someone's mom, and if she'd had a chance, we blew it. So, yes, I was mad, and yes I used harsh language. But the difference was a) it was incredibly censored vs. what I was actually thinking, and b) they deserved it. I mean, how would that spectator nurse have felt if that was their mom or grandma, and nobody did anything? I wanted to bounce her head off the code cart.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

um...nerdtonurse...I prob would have said something a bit harsher in that situation.

I would probably laugh after I picked my jaw up off the floor. I have had another nurse curse and I just stared at her and asked her if she kisses her kid with that dirty mouth.

[NurseKitten, MSN, RN]

One of my last weekends working FT, I was in charge, and another nurse and the unit secretary got into it.

Admittedly, the other nurse was and is a very good friend of mine, but the fact was she wasn't the one out of control. I got them both into the back, but not before the unit secretary was up in my face too, cussing at us both.

She picked the wrong one, baby. I called the house supervisor, told her I needed her up there, NOW, and marched back there to handle bidness.

I write very well, and I flat out put everything in my written statement. I didn't embellish, I just told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

After the way she showed out (in front of a doctor, and 2 patient's familes, no less!), got up in MY face (ummm...excuse me? I am not your child, I am your de facto supervisor at the moment, and you are NOT about to sit here and make a circus out of the unit for whose operations *I* am currently responsible, nor are you going to threaten me.) and then threatened to bodily harm one of my good friends?

I DON'T THINK SO!!!

She no longer works there. And I let it be known that I ever see her again, she better RUN, not walk, the other way.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

I like what Ruby posted.

Cursing is poor self-expression and particularly, when someone is angry, poor emotional control. I swear sometimes -- most people do.

To swear at someone in a professional setting is inappropriate. Now personally I couldn't care less if someone swears at me. Maybe I should because I suppose if I let them do it they might think it is OK in general. I shall have to rethink my position.

However, if someone at work is behaving inappropriately you should ask them, in a very neutral matter of fact way, to stop. Don't threaten. Just tell them to stop.

If it persists that is another matter.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

She no longer works there. And I let it be known that I ever see her again, she better RUN, not walk, the other way.

I was right with ya until you wrote that. Essentially you threatened her?

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

I've had docs yell at me, I've had fellow nurses yell at me...and my response is usually the same..."well, I'm sorry you feel this way, but what can we do now(for the patient, the situation, etc)...thankfully, I usually don't have this problem with staff(we are a big team)...and docs usually calm down when I simply say "ok, but here's the issue...what would you like to do?"

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

I had to call a doc at night once (hated it, we all knew how he was when you woke him up), and he cussed me out for waking up his baby. I took a deep breath, counted to 10, and then I told him that if he'd answered his pager, I wouldn't have called his house, but the pt just coded, and I thought he'd like to know. And did he want the RNs to pronounce, or did he want to come in himself.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

Crickey!