What's The Meanest Thing A Dr. or Co-worker Ever Said To You?

Nurses General Nursing

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I was just curious. I've been preparing myself mentally for those unforeseen moments when you get chewed out for no apparent reason. I have a rather tough skin but sometimes those remarks can cut you to the bone. I refuse to cry in front of others. I go home and take it out on my punching bag (poor hubby;)).

I was working nights as a CNA and I had just come on duty to get report. The CNA I was following was hurrying and trying to leave so she could go to the club with her boyfriend. I asked her about Mrs. So-and-So and she gave me a go to h*** look and said, "She's fine!!! What are you? Playing nurse? Get over yourself!! Night shift don't do S*** anyway!" I was stunned and just turned around and walked away. Mumbling obscenities all the way.:angryfire

Well, when I checked on this lady she had a complete brown ring and was sopping wet!!! Her bottom was bright red and starting to break down in places! I was furious. The next night I told this CNA what I found and that if she EVER dissed me like that again she would regret the day. You don't leave a resident like that!!! You're supposed to make your rounds and have people cleaned up! She hadn't been cleaned up for hours because her sheets were stained! :angryfire

Well, said CNA ended up getting fired a couple of weeks later, thank the Maker! During her last 2 weeks she gave report with no lip and was careful about what she said to me.

What has a doctor or co-worker said to you that just totally teed you off? How did you handle it? If you don't mind sharing :specs:

Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

i had a dr last night get nasty with me about labs she did not order and she was at fault ... i told her there were no labs ordered for a pt since yesterday .. she said " are you lying ? and what can i do to you if you are?" then slammed the phone down in my ear.... dog....

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One of my former coworkers is a nurse with poor bedside manner, dishonesty, sloppy procedural skills, financial problems, and an attitude problem. She's been disciplined by my state's board of nursing on at least 3 occasions for issues with patient care.

Anyhow, she once told me, "If only you were prettier..."

I was surprised by the comment because I had never been unkind to her or given her a reason to say anything insulting to me. I was also surprised because this particular nurse was not much of a looker, either (looked older than her stated age, thin hair, overweight, bland facial features, and so forth).

Haha that does not suprise me,usually the ones with low-self esteem would have the balls to say something so mean,haters haters,haters.....

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i was about 22, tall, thin and blonde. but i had bad skin. i got on an elevator and the physician that was on the elevator already leaned over and took a really close look at my skin (and down my shirt as well) and then said "you'd be a really pretty girl if your skin weren't so bad. come and see me in my office." and handed me his card.

and then there was the physician who was a world famous neurosurgeon. he fired off verbal orders right and left. and because i was new at that hospital (and in town), i didn't understand half of what he said. (who knew that an "elastic" was a rubber band or that a "comer" was a coma?") when i asked him to repeat himself, he said "what are you, stupid?" and then when i asked him to spell his last name for me, he drew himself up to his full height of about 5 foot 4 inches (i'm 5' 8") and announced, "i'm a world famous neurosurgeon. have you been living in a box? or are you just mentally retarded?"

and the physician who, although i don't remember what precipitated it, chased me and my preceptor down the hall with a (full) bedpan, attempting to throw the contents at us. she (the preceptor) hustled me down the stairwell, whereupon the physician hurled the bedpan after us, splashing waste and bouncing off walls and stairs. it was a metal bedpan -- made a real ruckas. nurse manager wanted to know what we'd done to **** him off. i'll never forget my preceptor saying "it doesn't matter what we did that made him angry. he was out of line."

there was the coworker who (although even she didn't know it at the time) had grave's disease. she had a total meltdown one nightshift when we were working together, and stood in the exact center of where the two hallways that made up our unit intersected screaming "i hate you, you fat, ugly *****!" and other endearments along that vein. every patient in the unit who was able to walk and talk poked their head out of their doorway to see what was causing the ruckas. i was mortified. and then *i* was called into the nurse manager's office for unprofessional behavior. all i had done was stand there and cry!

and then there was the physician that actually said "you know, you look really fat. but you aren't, really are you? it's just that your tits are too big. i know someone who could fix that for you." by then, i was older, wiser and probably meaner. "i cannot imagine why you'd think i'd be interested in your opinion on that," i replied. "unless it's because your over-large ego is compensating for your extremely small dick." my nurse manager gulped, the assistant nurse manager gasped and the physician mumbled something about "just trying to help" as he scurried away. i got called into the office, but both the nurse manager and the assistant nurse manager were laughing too hard to "counsel" me. and that was the last time anyone thought they could get away with saying anything like that to me.

but tact still isn't my strongest suit.

this post leaves me speechlesseriously,total lack of the tact and professionalism

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Specializes in Geriatrics, LTC.
Over the last 6 years I would need a few pages to list. After a while you learn to not care, unless it comes from someone you respect. Fortunately that hasn't happened to me.

That is the exact mentality that I've been trying to develop. I intern in the OR and have had a couple surgeons yell at me but have learned not to take it personally. The comments I would take personally are the ones that reflect my work ability or personality. That's a little trickier to get around...

Doctors and surgeons have problems and stress in their lives, but our problem as nurses is that they take it out on their punching bags (us)!!

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This wasn't said, but the meanest thing done to me was my first LTC job.

It was a filth hole! I would not place a dead dog there.

Anyhoo, I was immediately disliked by the low-lifes that worked there. I was very very young, green, shy and awkward. The fact that my reserved and shy nature was often construed as haughtiness didn't help (thank gawd I got over THAT! lol).

So this crew of dope-smokin', thievin', lyin' and neglectful morons were "led" by this doofus named Tim.

On this one particular night, Tim led the others to... get this... blow straw wrappers at my face as I walked down the hallway. They were lined up on either side and laughing and mocking.

I kid you not. And I'm not talking about teenagers. These twits were late twenties/thirties.

HELLO!!

Then, Tim tries to be all smooth and "assure" me that this is all "just a little joke" and to "assure" me this is so, he presents me with... get this... a piece of chocolate cake he brings out from the SOILED utility room.

Good gawd!

I guess I was supposed to be waaaaaaaaaay more stoopid than I actually was. I was jeered for not taking it and being a "b****".

Tim said I "insulted" him by insinuating that he had done something foul to that cake.

Bah! Call me rude then!!!!

Soooo many more horror stories about that job... and I only stayed hardly a week before I told the ADON what a dump the place was and walked out.

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Specializes in LTC/Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

This was not said to me, but to a co-worker friend, by another co-worker. She called her at home about a very *MINOR* issue, and ended up saying "well I'm not saying your a sucky nurse, but...."

yeah right.

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It just baffles me how moronic some people can be! These are very interesting experiences! Thank you all so much for sharing them. Ruby Vee, you have cahonas the size of bowling balls! How freakin' funny!! Keep 'em coming!:yeah:

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Specializes in Gerontology.

Just after I got my degree - 6 years of working full time, going to school part time - this one nurse said to me "I would go for my degree, but I have children".

Another time, when I stayed overtime to help cover a sick call she said "We are so lucky to have someone like you here. It doesn't matter if you stay late because you have no one at home waiting for you".

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Just after I got my degree - 6 years of working full time, going to school part time - this one nurse said to me "I would go for my degree, but I have children".

Another time, when I stayed overtime to help cover a sick call she said "We are so lucky to have someone like you here. It doesn't matter if you stay late because you have no one at home waiting for you".

ughhhhhhhh I really hate people like that,they get on my last nerve,who the h...those people think they are and makes me wonder who raised those creeps you know.....I mean didnt they momma teach them better....but I know how you feel and it is really hard to stand up for yourself to such folks if you have been brought up in a an home surrounded with an open,friendly,heart-warmed atmosphere.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
it just baffles me how moronic some people can be! these are very interesting experiences! thank you all so much for sharing them. ruby vee, you have cahonas the size of bowling balls! how freakin' funny!! keep 'em coming!:yeah:

nah, i was just so shocked and angry that i opened my mouth and spewed the first thing that passed through my head without running it through the grey matter first.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
just after i got my degree - 6 years of working full time, going to school part time - this one nurse said to me "i would go for my degree, but i have children".

another time, when i stayed overtime to help cover a sick call she said "we are so lucky to have someone like you here. it doesn't matter if you stay late because you have no one at home waiting for you".

a former co-worker once told everyone that she absolutely could not work christmas because she had to go home every year and spend the holidays with her family in south dakota. i might have switched with her -- i was single then, and wasn't planning to travel 2000 miles to see my family. but then she said "you need to work christmas for me because you don't have a life." not only did i not switch with her, but i told everyone what she said and no one else would, either. two days before christmas, another nurse posted a sign in the bathroom begging someone to work christmas for her because the soloist at her church had strep throat and had asked her to cover. i was happy to switch with that nurse -- and did. as i was working christmas with the first co-worker, she told me i was "trying to get back at her" for switching with the second nurse but not with her.

why would i have been "trying to get back at her"? because when she was the nurse manager, she once disciplined me for something i hadn't done -- and she knew i hadn't done. the surgical fellow disagreed with an order that the r-3 had written -- and i had followed -- so he complained about me doing what had been ordered. the assistant nurse manager pulled the chart, and there was the order in black and white, but the nurse manager disciplined me anyway. then when she stepped down as manager and came back as a staff nurse, for some reason she thought i had it in for her . . . i wonder why she would think that!

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I once worked with a CNA who was always wanting the weekends off. This was before I got married. She would beg, borrow, and steal to get her weekends off. She once asked me to come in on the only weekend I had off in over a month and I told her I already had plans. She got all p*ssy and said that it didn't make any sense to her because I didn't mention my plans and she had been planning on this all week! Whatever! They posted the schedule for the whole month and she knew she had to work! She also said that she would make my life a living h*** because she needed that weekend off so she could go out with her boyfriend because if she didn't he would probably cheat on her! LOL Like I cared!! I told her to have at and her boyfriend probably cheated on her because she was such a manipulative b****. She wasn't happy about that but I got my weekend off and went to the lake where I met up with my future husband. She ended up breaking up with her boyfriend because she caught him cheating on her! I LOL'd on the inside so hard when she wanted sympathy.:rotfl: Karma for the win!!!:w00t:

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