Years ago while working acute care psychiatry. A patient had a consult order for IM ( internal medicine) This consult doctor was the one of the best. He was always kind and respectful with our patients we all just loved him as did his patient.
He had rushed over to our unit, grabbed the patient's chart off to the pt's room. I saw him enter the patient's room and followed.
He asked all of the usual questions, it was when he started asking the usual questions about when was last menses and such I had to start holding my breathe.The patient answered all questions as best they could.
The doctor then began his physical examination of the patient. Within moments he asked me to step outside so we could discuss further care of the patient.
Once alone he said" why didn't you tell me she was a he? etc. etc." To which in between my laughing at this point I said " Doctor so and so, I assumed you read the history and physcial"
We both ended up laughing. Went into the black humor as a means of coping with what was potentially a very uncomfortable situation.
I could tell he was embarassed that he had not taken the time to read the H & P which he most often always did. I will say he went back into that room and continued to treat this patient with the up most respect.
Never a time that I think back on this don't I bust out laughing remembering " what the heck are you doing asking about menses and such, this is a guy who looks like female and not a pretty one at that"
When I was a medic in a small Army hospital on the OB floor, I was sent to the ER to help with a pt. who had miscarried at home. I got to her room and she was crying, holding a baby food jar with the "remains". The OB on call comes in, and pats her hand, examines her, and together we get her into a wheel chair to take her upstairs to surgical floor. He asked me to drop off her speciman and blood tubes to the Lab, so he could take her upstairs. It was a holiday weekend, he wanted to ask her more questions while going to surgery, and he kept patting her shoulder. This was precious to me...this was early 1970s, he was drafted into the Army and "stuck" in our little podunk Army hospital and it was no secret he hated it. He was a very good physician, but reserved. I had never seen Dr. H so compassionate towards a patient.
We did become friends and in fact dh and I named our first child after him!
This story really isn't mine but I will tell it anyway.
A resident used to go to the peds unit and sit and read to a little girl who was dying. We watched her for hours and finally told her parents the little girl had something wrong with her intestines, the peristalsis was going the wrong way. In the morning the little girl had surgery and lived.
That little girl is my older sister, so I only know the story as told to me. Our entire family knew they owed the fact that she survived to his interest in reading to a dying child.
My mum had a miscarriage between my brother (now 23) and my sister (now 20). She had two doctors seeing her in the ED. One was all concerned with the paperwork and the dispo. The second pulled a chair up to the bed, sat net to my mother and held her hand while she cried.
Mum can't remember the doc's name, but after all those years she remembers how much it meant to her to have that doctor show compassion.
We have an absolutely wonderful pulmonologist who used to see patients at our hospital. I was still fairly new there and didn't know him very well yet, but I knew that he already knew my name, which some of the floor staff didn't even yet, and was a really nice guy. Wrote "please" on his orders and never raised his voice to a nurse, even if they really screwed something up. Anyway, he wrote me a scrip for antibiotics one morning without even blinking just because I was back the next night and I didn't want to waste time at the doctor's office between shifts (I had an obviously infected finger with a red streak up my arm).
This same doc has been on medical leave for two years now, but still sees patients in the office. I had my mom start seeing him before I had my last baby, and he still asks after me and my kids by name whenever she goes in to see him. Oh, and while he was still seeing patients in the hospital I caught him one morning and told him that the next time he prescribed prednisone for my mom he better give her a script for Xanax or Ativan, or I was going to have her call him at 2am when she was speeding....several months later, he still remembered and did so.
I had been having years of infertility problems. At one point, I developed petechiae on my chest and made an appointment with an internal medicine specialist to have him evaluate the reason they had developed. Of course, by the time he examined me, they were gone.
A few weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant. I saw the same physician in the CCU where I had been working. I saw him and exclaimed with delight "Dr. Sweetheart (he was/obvious an alias), I'm pregnant since the last time I saw you." He turned beet red, the entire nursing staff and physicians surrounding him laughed and he stated, "what they are thinking is not true, but you just made my day.":jester:
I remember as a student extern I worked in a CCU. This one fellow was so nice, he would call me in rooms when he did procedures and explain them to me. He remembered my name all the time and would ask me about random things. Most docs didn't take the time to explain much of anything to nursing students but he did!
This is not nursing related, but I have never forgotten this encounter. I went into labor with my daughter. Of course my ob/gyn was out of town, and his partner, whom I had never met, had to be there for the delivery. This complete stranger to me was the most caring doc I had ever seen. While my husband stood there during labor not knowing WHAT to do (cuz he refused to go to classes), this doc without even asking took over and was my coach. He would ask if I need to go to the BR, upon which he would help me up and stood there with me, then help me back to bed. He would rub my back, whatever I needed, and was there for me throughout the day. He has since relocated to another state, but I will never forget him as he made her delivery such an amazing experience (although I am STILL trying to forget my ex!!)
I've seen good, I've seen bad. The one I remember though is personal. A couple years ago, I started to develop SOB and chest pain. My primary doc did an EKG and saw new changes so sent me to a cardiologist. This cardiologist is one of the admitting docs on my floor, so I knew him for years and always trusted his judgement. He set me up for a stress test, but told me I would probably need a cath. Two nights prior to my stress test, I developed CP again, took a nitro and tried to call in to work. I was told there was no one available to do charge, so I went in. The next morning, my doc comes flying on the floor in his typical whirlwind fashion, looks at me and asks how I am doing. When I tell him, he pulls me into the waiting room, and says he is gonna cancel the stress test and schedule a cath instead. Then he calls the cath lab himself to schedule it for the following day. He showed genuine caring and compassion. (My cath came back fine, by the way....it was a medication reaction.) This all from the same guy who flies in in the morning, barking orders and telling us nurses that we have to keep an eye on the residents and really watch their orders. That shows quite a bit of trust in the nursing staff.
.thumb.jpg.fdeda4722b298c9060dd5ada86bad2cb.jpg){kind=small}
psalm, RN
1,263 Posts
When I was a medic in a small Army hospital on the OB floor, I was sent to the ER to help with a pt. who had miscarried at home. I got to her room and she was crying, holding a baby food jar with the "remains". The OB on call comes in, and pats her hand, examines her, and together we get her into a wheel chair to take her upstairs to surgical floor. He asked me to drop off her speciman and blood tubes to the Lab, so he could take her upstairs. It was a holiday weekend, he wanted to ask her more questions while going to surgery, and he kept patting her shoulder. This was precious to me...this was early 1970s, he was drafted into the Army and "stuck" in our little podunk Army hospital and it was no secret he hated it. He was a very good physician, but reserved. I had never seen Dr. H so compassionate towards a patient.
We did become friends and in fact dh and I named our first child after him!