What if I really said that???

Nurses General Nursing

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Hadda call the Doc at 3 am for a patient who was tachy with A-flutter but was previously at a normal HR.

Guess what the Doc said?

"First off, I want to ask you why you waited until 3 am to call me about this?"

:(

What I said (through clenched teeth): "Frankly, Dr., I didn't wait. His HR was normal a couple hours ago and has just gone from the 80's to 120-140's within the past half hour while he is at rest. I thought you might like to do something about that."

What I WANTED to say?

"Because I love to wake Docs up in the middle of the night. It gives me a feeling of power." :rolleyes:

Or, "YOU ARE ON CALL, which means you are AT WORK. Can I sleep on my job? No? Neither should you." :stone

So here's the question: What are some of the things you have WANTED to say to Docs, pts, relatives, coworkers--whether or not you actually said it?

yes, docs they can be the "most precious things", although i have a seen a swing to more civility in my tenure in nursing

i will always remember very early on in my nursing career, third shift.......another new nurse was getting slammed emotionally by the doc on the other end of the phone......."she" was in tears.....i grabbed the phone from her, listened to the doc tirade until "he" ran out of steam.......and said now that you are finished, unless you want to continue.........

this is what is occuring with the patient, what would you like to order.........

this doc never gave me a lick of trouble..............

;)

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To one particular MD (you know who you are!!) "I wouldn't let you take care of a hair on the crack of my a**."... also it would be nice to be able to say "Bite me " in a very calm tone of voice..instead of "Yes Doctor, thank you Doctor, sorry I had to bother you doctor...blah blah blah

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Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

"Ya know they sell stuff to fix that at the drugstore"

to which she replied "It doesn't matter - I shaved it all anyways"

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Specializes in ED staff.

I am so lucky to work in a non-teaching hospital. I work with the same 6 doctors all the time, I have no trouble with them most of the time. If my doc needs to speak to a private doc at 3 am, I have a secretary that can do that, however most of the time we get no abuse from the doctors that use our hospital. We have a couple of surgeons that think they are hot stuff, they suffer with short man's syndrome. The "are you through now" question really works, they finally realize how idiotic they are when acting like a 3 year old.

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I think I have said a lot of what's already been posted. My personal favorite that I have used at least a gazillion times over the years continues to be: "I didn't hold a gun to your head and force you to go to medical school. I didn't hold a gun to your head and force you to go into a specialty that includes call responsibilities. I also don't hold a gun to your head and force you to stay in a profession you apparently hate all the while you are still collecting money hand over fist from patients you DO NOT CARE ABOUT AFTER 5 PM!!!! Go find the person who forced you into the horrible life you have!" Shuts 'em up every time.

This is not what I would have said either, I say this stuff I say all the time.

Some others: "And screaming at me will make (choose department here) do their job faster?"

When they are stupid enough to say to those of us on nights "Coordinate your calls tonight, OK?" (this is almost always said in a whiney voice) So I say "OK. I'll call you at 1 am, Sue will call you at 215 am and Dave will call you at 330 am. That coordinated enough for you?"

To a resident who was pissed off that I pointed out he was ordering a sentinel dose of Atropine after he acosted me and said

you are not allowed to go to anymore codes

on that side of the unit." I said "Let me tell you something buster. You do not set nursing policy or practice on this unit or anywhere else in the hospital. We don't even let attending MD's do that we certainly won't let a resident do that. Thank God that patient wasn't viable to begin with because you would have been responsible for ordering his death. I'll be keeping a very close eye on you from here on in." He hasn't said BOO to me since.

To the attending MDs that actually do call back and only berate me for calling about a sat of 80% or a heart rate of 150 with a rhythm change or crushing chest pain of 10/10 with hemodynamic instability, when they say DO not call me again about this patient or What the hell are you calling me for about this or I will be in in the morning, I write what they say verbatim in the nurses notes and I write it as an order on the order sheet. I always make sure it is not an empty order sheet so that they cannot just throw it away.

I always remind people that are new and think docs belong on pedestals that they put their pants on one leg at a time and that their poop stinks just as much as anyone else's. Do not ever give another human being blanket respect based on their PERCEIVED POWER or authority. They must earn your respect.

Thanks for the new ideas. July is, after all, right around the corner!

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I actually had a really bad experience with a primary doctor whose pt was admitted with GI bleed and a hct 22 on the ICU floor. I floated up there occasionaly but usally work in the ED. I was assesing this pt because her HR went up to 140 and she was pale and had a unpalpable BP. I went to roll her over and she was sitting in about 1000cc of frank red blood. She was going into shock. The other nurses were starting IV's and I called the supervisor and told her to get the on call surgery.

I called her primary and he immediately started to scream at me. "I have been on hold for five damm minutes and its 4 oclock in the f***ing morning." I started to tell him about his patients critical status and he said "Your wasting my time...CLICK" He hung up on me. I called him back five times over the period of 20 minutes. I called him at home and no luck either.

By this time the OR team was ready and the surgeon was in. I called the chief of medicine and told him the situation and he came in five minutes later. He authorized the woman to be treated in the OR. Sadly she bled out in surgery and died. The next week I was sitting in a medical review with her primary and he was reported to the board of medicine and was fired from the hospital.

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Originally posted by shootemrn

Sadly she bled out in surgery and died. The next week I was sitting in a medical review with her primary and he was reported to the board of medicine and was fired from the hospital.

YES!! JUSTICE!! I love it! :D

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Originally posted by fedupnurse

...when they say DO not call me again about this patient or What the hell are you calling me for about this or I will be in in the morning, I write what they say verbatim in the nurses notes and I write it as an order on the order sheet. I always make sure it is not an empty order sheet so that they cannot just throw it away.

WOW!!! Wish I'd thought of (and been brave enough to do...) that! I'll keep it in mind though in case we get a new Doc that needs an adjustment.:D Currently, our docs are great.

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fedup, i hope one day i can muster up enough courage and use some of your tactics.

our chief of surgery definately has short man syndrome. well, at least from my point of view. one evening we had a 30ish female patient who had gastric bypass surgery a couple of months earlier, unfortunately she was well known to our floor. (ate a couple of pieces of pizza about a week post op :o ) she was back on our floor a couple of months later (fistula at the bypass site). she was very upset with her care and was requesting to speak to the doc on call. lucky for us it was short man :rolleyes: filled him in and he replied, "i am tired of her sh!t, let her sign out ama. i don't want to deal with her anymore." i was dumbfounded. didn't know what to do. being the evil nurse i am, i convinced her to stay the night, so she could personally tell him why she was upset. rumor is you could hear her yelling all the way at the nurse's station when he came in the following morning! :roll

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

During my med/surg rotation in college, a doctor was very rude to me when questioning him about one of his patients that had been assigned to me - the student nurse. I just let him walk away from me without saying anything further to him. My Instructor was standing nearby and witnessed the entire scenario. She immediately approached me and said "Go after him and get what you need from him, Renee. You will have to deal with docs for a long time as a nurse, and the last thing you want to get use to is their abuse of you as a nurse." I looked at the instructor in awe (she was my least favorite of instructors at that time....) So, nervously, off I went to fetch the rude doc who was being followed by his train of medstudents. I let him know exactly what I needed from him while staring up at him directly in his eyes without flinching (except my heart was pounding like crazy). He looked over my head down the corridor at my Instructor who wasn't that far behind me, then he looked directly at me. He told me what I needed to hear, then proceeded to walk back to the nursing station for the patient's chart to document his orders. He turned and smiled at me, glanced seriously in the direction of my Instructor, and went on his merry way. Ever since that time, I have NEVER been afraid to speak my mind to any doc. I say exactly what I know needs to be said to get the job done from them towards their patients. They don't always show their appreciation, but results were my end intentions. :rolleyes: :)

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Specializes in Clinical Risk Management.

Renee,

Way cool! Great nursing instructor!

Joy

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I had a doc ask me why I wrote the don't call me stuff in my notes and I said because that is what happened. I am not going to lie by ommission to make you or anyone else look good. You should have come in, you didn't and the patient suffered. If the family audits the chart for a lawsuit I doubt I'll be defending myself. By the way, he asked me very nicely as oppsoed to the screaming fit he had the previous night on the phone. I have never had a problem with this guy since. He now calls right back and gives appropriate orders to all of us.

Something else you might want to chart is when you are after another dept for a lab esult or pharmacy for a stat med they can't seem to find for 2 hours. I document all that stuff.

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