What MD speciality do you find the most difficult to work with?

[nurturing_angel]

Reading through the posts this morning I read something about cardiologists being hard to work with. For most of my nursing career I have worked with obstetricians and gynecologists and find the majority of them easy to work with. The specialist group I loath working with are orthopedic surgeons. In the few years I worked on a general med surg unit and had to deal with these guys I found them very hard to work with. The two worst of the worst would stand in the hall and bellow at nurses and one of them would stand right outside of pts rooms and very loudly scream at nurses about how "undesirable" the pt was and how he would never "get paid a dime for taking care of such trash." Also, he would scream and swear at me each time I called him and once he let the phone ring over 50 times....I can be persistent when I need to...before he answered the phone with "what the hell do you want now!"

Am I being skewed on my perception of ortho docs because of my bad experiences with them?

Who are your favorite and least favorite types of docs to work with? Just curious!

:balloons:

[amyk_ncsu]

I've met many many orthopedic surgeons on a professional level as well as on a patient level. About half of them are arrogant and the other half are some of the most compassionate docs I've met.

I agree with some of the above posters that it doesn't depend on the specialty, it depends on the person.

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

i have had a problem with very few doctors... most ive worked with have been very professional and helpful. but i think the most arrogant ive worked with are cardiologists and gen. surgeons.

there was one cardiologist who had call in the ED one night, and a man came in with heartburn at 3am... chg. nurse called cardiologist and said he was having signs of AMI... ER doc requested stat cath...he said just watch him and hung up. 45 mins later, pt coded. ER doc already called in cath team. nurse called cardiologist back, and he said no he would not come in this late for a cath he could wait until the morning if the patient was already vented....so the ER doc ended up doing the cath himself... pt had 100% blockage!

there was also one general surgeon i couldnt stand to work with! i hated when i would even see him at work because he was such a pig and was so crude even with his patients. he once told a patient while we were putting a in CVC that maybe if she hadnt eaten so much "g-d mcdonalds" she wouldnt be so fat, and then proceeds to ask the patient "if they delivered to her house" since she was bedridden! and same doc, i was walking by him in the cafeteria, and i had on peaches brand scrubs. i guess he forgot my name and called me peaches. i was like "why am i peaches?".. he said "well, its written on your *ss"... ugh...

why because someone has extensive education do they think it gives them the right to be nasty?

[rph3664]

i am a firm believer that you are treated the way you expect to be treated. i have worked with many doctors that other nurses had problems with and i can honestly say that i did not. all of my experience has left me with a "i will treat you with respect and i will receive the same from you" attitude. nurses need to own how important their positions are and how sometimes, their demeanor invites misuse from others. i tolerated no abuse from anyone and was my biggest supporter.

i hear many nurses complaining about how they are being treated by others and yet, i do not see them doing anything about it. stand up for yourself and express your dislike of certain treatment. taking your power back over your situation is very liberating and contagious.

if i could pass on any bit of info to young nurses it would be : this is your life to do with as you see fit; either mold it to your needs or move on and try another life style. never allow someone to treat you in any way that makes you feel uncomfortable or unappreciated. you are not helpless, you can do something. you always have a choice.

how many bullies have you actually stood up to, both in and out of medicine? my experience has been "you do that and you will get your butt kicked worse next time."

jmho

[lpnstudentin2010, LPN]

Do you all think that surgeons may come across this way due to their facing higher risks of law suits, post op infections, and often times heavy workloads. Any surgery is a risk as we all know and no matter how well you educate people they all expect perfect outcomes regardless of their underlying health issues. Surgery can also be very tedious and physical at times. I have sat in on a couple ortho surgeries (total knees) and just from what I could see they require alot of hard physical work implanting and anchoring the prosthesis, it seemed almost a barbaric procedure. I know many carry heavy surgery loads and often have schedules changed due to emergencies etc. Years ago I did infection control for a year and would often see the surgeons watch to see what charts I would pull to review. I always felt like they viewed me as the enemy when I did that job. I am not making excuses for any Doc to mistreat other members of the healthcare team but I can see how some specialities might feel frustrated and defensive. Yes, surgeons do make the "big bucks" but that comes at a cost. They can't clock out at the end of the day and just be done. They miss out on alot of quality time with their families which probably plays into their frustration as well. The Docs that treat us well probably realize that we are all on the same team.

Toq

This is how I have seen it with my surgeon. I is one of the nicest most caring people in the world. To the patients that is.

I was at career day at my highschool when I was a junior, the nurse who came i found out used to work at my hospital. In the OR. I told her that I went there, and she asked me who my surgeon was, I told her and she told me he was a jerk. I did not think mych of it thinking they had just had a run in or something.

That is until I saw how he treated his office nurse, who I have known since I was 4 (have known him since I was 17). He had drained some fluid out of my face (this was post op reconstruction facial area) so he put a pressure bandage on me. When I went back a week later and he took the bandage off the skin had broken down. The nurse was in there with him and he told her off for having put the bandage on to tightly.

Then this summer I was on the ward after a surgery. One day I had 2 nurses because one was being trained. I was on the transplant/general surgery ward (odd combo i know but there are usually 2 patients to nurse so I had 2 nurses for 2 patients.) so I was talking to one of my nurses and brought this up and she had heard about this rep, and seen it when she shadowed in the OR.

So he is a nice guy, and I realize that the stress can get to him, but it is not acceptable to treat nurses like that. Nurses are the ones who take care of your patients on a daily basis, they keep an eye on things and let you know if something is going on. The 5 minutes a day your resedent spends with the patient is nothing compared to how long the nurses spend with them, nurses are much more likely to pick up on if there is a problem.

Just my .

[PLTSGT]

Maybe that's why I don't work in the OR because of the horror stories that I hear. On the other hand, some fellows in the OR are just "sweethearts" according to a circulating nurse friend.

But the worst I've met was a GI doc who was a total D-Bag!

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

I have found Cardiologists the most difficult to deal with. It seems to be their way or no way and they don't budge because they are infaliable and don't make mistakes and they, IMHO, are cold towards their patients.

[HelenofOz]

I don't have a particular problem with most of our docs, but I suppose PACU is a bit of a different area altogether. The ones I really dislike are the ones who change their boundaries at will. Either be distant and professional, or be friendly and chatty, but don't chop & change.

We have an anaesthetist who always comes over as distant and professional, but that's OK because I always know where I stand with him and how to approach him, but the orthopod (classic orthopod-gorilla physique and mentality) who would be great friends one day, then sh-t on you from a great height the next! No, no, no, he never got to do that again, after that I was always extremely professional with him-but that was his own personality, just "improved" by the status that he thought went with the job. I did learn to recognise that personality type pretty quick though, and have only ever come across it once more, a petite female ENT surgeon, so all dealings were kept on a very professional level there too. So much easier than being left with that stunned look on your face, going 'what the ...... happened there'

Needless to say, when I worked on the ward, the one surgeon we dreaded ringing was the one we had to ring most often, the orthopod. You could guarantee that what could go wrong would go wrong with his patients, no matter how hard we tried to get it right. I kinda think he brought it on himself.

(As with all relationships/friendships I do always approach them all in a professional manner initially until we get to know each other better, then relax, or not, into a more easygoing conversation style as the vibe permits)

[GregRN]

As a group I don't notice one service to be particularly more pompous than another. There are good and bad eggs within each. I do, however, notice a significant difference between private and teaching hospitals. A disproportionate amount of "tude" seems to come from the private vs. the teaching hospital side.

[CVICURN2003]

Our VASCULAR surgeons are the biggest jerks. Our CV surgeons are great...once you learn how to deal with them. Our CV surgeons will "test" a nurse and you really have to earn their respect, but once you have done it. But they are pretty intimidating (hence part of their test) to new nurses, including "new to us".

[Scrubby]

Our orthopaedic and neuro surgeons would have to be the worst to work with.

[Riseupandnurse]

I have worked with ortho docs for 20 years now. To the previously posted comments I say, "Well, yup!" The best are the hospitalists. We love them; life got much simpler once hospitalists started working with the patients' medical needs. The hardest physicians for me though are the GI docs. Just don't understand them.

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

The hardest physicians for me though are the GI docs. Just don't understand them.

i do agree with you that GI docs are incredibly strange and intense, lol. i am working at an outpatient endoscopy lab with 4 Gastro docs who i love working with... but my god are they weird!!!

one doc that i work with everyday checks to see what color my socks are, and if they are in contrast with my scrubs. things bother him, like if i dont wear my hair the same way, or if one of the nurses takes her glasses off. he doesnt adapt to any kind of change at all. another sings all day long, sings to the patients, sings to himself, sings to me... and its not even a song.. its just a "dooo dooo dooooo". and he is severly dyslexic and i am constantly having to go behind him and edit his documents. another is some kind of vegan who only eats a diet of like bran, brown rice and yogurt because he says he can see the damage food does to the colon??? one day when i was eating chinese food for lunch, he took it away and gave me an all-bran granola cake thing that he made.

at first, i was like omg i cant work here, i am going to lose my mind! but after a while i guess i grew to love them and accept their very, very strange personalities. after all, i guess you have to be kind of special to want to deal with the GI tract all day everyday.