Why Do Dr's do this?

It's not limited to family docs, nor is it limited to telling a pt she is less dilated than your assessment. We have an OB who ALWAYS disagrees with EVERY RN and tells the pt they are at least 1 cm less dilated than the nurse said.

On the other hand we have a family doc who will tell a primip at her 36wk check that she's 3cms and could go anytime. Of course when she shows up 2-3 days later because she thinks she's in labor and I check her and tell her she's only 1cm/thick and high she'll say, "Well, Dr. K told my I'm 3...so how did I go backwards?"

It drives me nuts!! :smackingf

On the other hand we have a family doc who will tell a primip at her 36wk check that she's 3cms and could go anytime. Of course when she shows up 2-3 days later because she thinks she's in labor and I check her and tell her she's only 1cm/thick and high she'll say, "Well, Dr. K told my I'm 3...so how did I go backwards?"

That's when you really have to fight the urge to say something like, "Well honey, you know men always have a distorted sense of size..." (presuming said doc is a man, of course). :trout:

problem in the business forever!!

between other nurses' exams and doctors' exams varying so much,

the poor patients get so confused.

I always teach them that VE's are very SUBJECTIVE, and can vary significantly between examiners, which is why, when they are MY labor patient, I will limit VE's to me, to facillitate consistency!

Where do these family practice Dr's get their experience from?

We have the opposite problem here. Family Med will call their induction 5cm/100%/0station. No problem right? Well, when they were 1cm/25%/-2 two hours ago, and they're a primip and they've had maybe 4 contractions that they didn't even feel....

:uhoh21:

Or, they'll call up to check on Pt(they don't have the central monitoring, since they don't hang out on the OB floors) and we'll say "Yeah, she's a little uncomfortable, no stadol yet, ctx q5-7min, baby looks great." I get in response "Why didn't you call!?!? I'll be right up!". They rush up, huffing and puffing and panting...thinking the Pt is about to deliver. A primip. Who, 4 hours ago was C/L/H. Wha--??

Not to mention, we have to walk them through the whole admit orders. From what "admit labs" are (CBC/RPR/T&S) to what the fluid and rate should be.

Whenever there's a family med pt here for cervidil, the nurses draw straws as to who has to take them, because they're so hard to deal with.

And I'm sorry. It sounds like I'm bashing family med. Maybe I am. Some of them are really sweet people. But they add so much extra work for us, so much drama/stress for us and pt, etc.

I'm gonna have nightmares about Family Med tonight, lol.

We have one OB who is notorious for sending patients over who are 5cm. Well they usually end up being 2 or 3 cm! I always tell my patients that cervical exams will vary from person to person.