When physician's act up/out

[sharann]

So what do you all think is the best way to deal with a doc who starts up with a negative attitude and starts yelling of he doesn't get what he want's? DO you walk away. Do you say "I will not put up with you bad mouthing the nurses..." or what? We had a surgeon come in and start demanding things of us(which we had nothing tho do with and were unaware of) and started telling us how difficult we were and we were just being this way on purpose(yada yada)... No matter what we said we couldn't placate him so we just let him rant and called our manager(while he continued to rant at the air since we all walked away from him). Now this guy has been an A-sole but we never met him before so we had no clue. I am sick of these guys pulling this garbage so I walked away. There was no patient present yet by the way. He acted like we were obstructing justice or something.

After our manager(a male) talked to him I heard he was sweet as pie to my co-worker(I always miss this stuff)

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Had a surgeon slam me about a month ago because when i handed her a suture, it didn't have the needle she wanted. Oh, NEVERMIND that was the EXACT needle and suture she had ASKED for, but that didn't stop her from flinging the needleholder and sture to the floor, and yelling "How ****ing stupid ARE you??? I SAID i want THIS!!" I replied "Well that's what that was the exact thing you asked for." She said "Liar, don't you dare tell me you're not wrong". I turned to the circulator and asked her to call for relief (i was 3rd on this case). A tech came in after Avagarding, dressed herself, and took my place after counting everything, and as i was taking my stuff of, the surgeon said "yeah run away, little *****. Can't handle it, gotta leave huh?"

It turns out this was extremely common! This surgeon's been like this with SEVERAL nurses and techs. Although someone failed to tell me i was the 2nd 3rd assistant in her room that day and it wasn't even noon yet.

Went to the supervisor. She went to the hospital board. This surgeon hasn't been back for awhile, no one knows specifically why.

In other words, no, i don't stick around and take it.

[nursbee04]

If I am on the phone and the physician starts screaming and cussing, I very calmly say "I don't have to listen to your verbal harassment. When you feel like you can speak to me in a calm voice, you can call back. I am hanging up the phone now." Then I slam the phone down and say a****** under my breath as I dial the supervisor's number. I have only had to do this once.

I have never had a physician blow up at me in person, but I like the code orange idea.

[Tony35NYC]

The patients family naturally was very upset, saying "she's going to die" please do something. When he said no to the unit I said if you don't send her "I'm calling administration" that's when he let me have it!

So he was willing to let the patient die just because he was having a bad day. What a son of a bit**!

[sharann, BSN, RN]

Thanks for the advice. I will take a bit from all of you (the mooning part made me chuckle but my butts too flabby:) )

[flashpoint]

I love the code orange idea...our doctors would die if we tried something like that! :-)

[z's playa]

I give anyone now that acts up or says something totally stupid the "God are you ever stupid look". I think I'll probably use it when I'm a nurse with any ornery doctors or peers for that matter. What will they say? " She gave me a funny look"?

Soo grade 3.

[Jo Dirt]

If the flogging is not too bad I will just shut up and take it. But if they really start in jumping around like Rumplestilktskin or something I would probably adjust my behavior to match theirs. I can't help it.

Marie, how could you keep from attacking that surgeon? I would tell her to meet me in the parking lot out back and we'd see who told who to do what and when. Noooo, I woudln't take that at all. I would get redneck with her but quick. She'd be looking over her shoulder.

[lapappey]

Passed a resident the suction once, seems that it just wasn't screwed on to the tubing correctly; my bad, sure ... but before I could say that, said suction was airborne in my direction. Hits the floor and the doc holds out his hand as if I'm about to pick it up off the ground and hand it to him. I just look over at him, as he starts throwing a fit at the *circulator* to get him another one, "I can't see sh*t, the pt's safety is compromised, blah blah blah." This was one of my first times scrubbing, I didn't know what to do ... just sat there until the circ opens one up for me, attach it, and go on with the case /s comment ... but if this happened today, boy would I let him have it. I guess some of these guys can smell fear on you ...

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

At our hospital, we have code red and yellow (for aggressive patients or visitors), which dispatches hospital security to the floor. Kinda like the code Orange that you described. Never thought of using it (code red or yellow) that way before...but, it has merit. Why not?

[Darlene K.]

Call a Code Orange or whatever you want to call it where as many nurses as possible from all over the hospital rush over, surround the guy and just stare at him. I've heard that this really changes their behavior.

I love it!!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I do like the mooning idea - hmmmmm (goes off to ponder this idea).

[TracyB,RN, RN]

I think the code orange is tooooo funny... I used to work for a office doc that was having a hissy fit b/c "you nurses didn't tell me how bad this pt was wheezing." After we had been trying to get him off the phone (talking golf with one of his buddies ....so important) I wrote on a piece of paper with black marker, pt in rm 4 needs you NOW". He slammed the door in my face. The other doc came back from lunch & treated the pt. When doc # 2 went to tell doc #1 he just took care of his pt, the real rage started.... we were all B&^(#es & didn't know wtf we were doing, so I opened my mouth & said, if you would have gotten off the phone, you would have seen how bad off this pt was. He grabbed my hand, got in my face & dared me to say that again, so I politely told him to take his F*$&* hand off me, & said it again. He did let go of my hand & proceeded to throw a chart at me. I told him I expected that behavior from 2 yr old & not a board certified MD who had been practicing 20 years. I picked up the chart & told him that I would not tolerate that behavior from him & if he ever threw another chart at me, I would shove it up his a**, gave my 2 week notice right then. He ignored me for a few days & then begged me not to quit. His partner finally asked me on my last day why I was leaving, also begged me not to quit. I told him when his partner got some help readjusting his meds for his bipolar disorder, I would stay. His jaw dropped & he asked me how I knew.... I was like Doc, isn't it obvious??? I saw him a few years later when he was rounding at the hospital & he says..."oh, you're still a nurse?" I could only respond with, "oh, you're still a psychotic a**hole?" Professional on my part, god no, but it felt good to say. I saw him again, 2 months ago.... He actually stopped his conversation to say hi to me & ask how I was. Guess he got those meds adjusted after all....