In general venting thread -
I'll begin. You'll be sorry - just ignore. :)
Long ago, and far away, I had returned to my L&D unit after about three years away, on a PRN basis. Everything was in a different place and all the monitoring equipment was new AND most were unreliable. Most of the nurses I knew were still there, but all the residents were new, and this particular night, not a single attending I knew had a case. Therefore, every doctor on the floor thought I was a newbie and treated me as such.
We were a regional high-risk center and on this night there were never less than 5 actively laboring patients, several of which were at risk. On this shift alone, we did 2-3 on-unit C-sections as well as at least two regular deliveries. Two nurses, including me, were working labor, and one nurse was working delivery. We had a system wherein if a section was needed, the on-call nurse came in to circulate.
Of course, I was having major difficulties trying to get working monitors on the patients, because I didn't know which were operable and which weren't, and things were crazy due to the sheer number of active patients. When we began the shift, one patient was undergoing a section already, no one else had an IV yet and only one had a monitor. The day shift had been just as busy as ours was going to be. Everything was chaotic. A couple of patients had just been admitted and needed workups.
One of my pts. was a very nice primip who'd been discharged during the night with a false labor dx. She had come in the second time around 7 AM and it was now 3 PM. As I set up to do her vitals, I realized that NO charting had been done since her readmission - no last intake, no BP - nothing! She had no IV, no prep of any kind. I told her I'd need to get the info again, as the chart had nearly nothing from the first admission, either - just her name, an initial BP and fetal heart and not much else. As I'm getting the info, her DH was rolling his eyes at me in exasperation. I explained we needed all this info for her care, but with each question I asked, he became huffier. Too bad. Then he was upset that I was taking her vitals! Imagine how he acted when I needed to put on the external monitor. That was just the beginning of the attitude from him. Everything I did, he rolled his eyes at and stopped just short of calling me stupid. If I was in the room caring for her, he acted like I was just in his way. If I was out of the room caring for one of my other 3-4 patients, he would get huffy and wonder why she was being "neglected."
She was most often "neglected" for the patient who was experiencing late decels. I didn't know her attending, but he was, well, excitable. He was obviously panicking over her condition and couldn't make up his mind what he wanted, and was that sort who takes his own inadequacy out on the nurses - everything is their fault. When it became an utter emergency, he finally decided to do the section and started screaming at me and everyone else in sight to get her into delivery. I started to release the brakes on the bed, but one of them wouldn't release. He kept screaming at me that I was doing it wrong - however, I did remember the "off" position! He would alternately scream at me and the supervisor, who'd come help us, to just move the bed anyway, then he'd yell, "No, stop! Make it work!" We'd drag it four feet, he'd make us stop, and on and on. After a few minutes, he literally jumped on the brake with both feet! This of course, just served to make sure it stayed jammed, and then he took up his prior tactic of screaming stop, then go. Families were lining up in the halls, watching the "stupid" nurses being berated by this frantic out of control MD from Lord knows where.
This incident took about 20-30 minutes before the pt was on the table and I'd helped begin the OR prep. When I was able to return to my other patients, the fun DH just gave me a withering look. After a couple more hours, his wife's doctor decided she needed a section, too, for lack of progression, but by then, all the delivery rooms were full. (Which did not mean we had less patients in labor - they just kept coming through admitting.) The doctor had no choice but to wait for a free room. Of course, to the DH, this somehow was all my fault as well. The doctor gave the usual orders for prep, indicating he would do the section as soon as a room was free, so I set about those. After I finished the Foley, doc came into the room and said, "Oh, why'd you do that so soon? She could have been more comfortable a little while longer." So soon?? Didn't he want her prepped and ready when the room was ready? Wouldn't her labor progress better with an empty bladder? (Because the doctor was still holding out hope she would begin to progress, circumventing the need for a section.) Oh, never mind, I'm just the dumb newbie, what do I know? I guess he'd prefer I have to do my second "I want a Foley now!!" last-minute-on-the-table-and-delivering-cath of the night.
Of course, that just gave the husband more fuel against me. He hadn't said a civil word to me the whole shift, and suddenly, a bright, lovely young girl who was apparently the admitting nurse, pops into the room and his face lights up like a beacon. "Oh, we missed you, we're so grateful for all you did for us, etc. etc." Oh, you mean all the vitals that were taken, notes that were done, care that was given - NOT?
When a delivery room was free, my shift was over, but I needed to stay overtime to circulate for his wife's section, as we were once again too short-handed due to other deliveries. As I unlocked the brakes and began to move the bed, DH gave me his parting nastiness, "Are you sure that's unlocked? Can you get the bed down the hall?"
