Yelled at yet again

[purpleiris]

Need to vent!

Yesterday I got an admission from the ED. I paged the admitting physician for orders and one of the orders was for a cardiology consult. It was 5 PM so I paged the cardiologist. He called back and wanted to know why I paged him. I told him I paged you to tell you "this patient who blahblah". He repeated why did you page me? I said because the admitting physician ordered a consult from you for her patient. He started yelling at me for bothering him when he already knew about the consult. And yet again, I sit and listed to a physician yell at me for no reason not that I think there is ANY reason to yell at a colleague.

I am so sick of physicians yelling at nurses. How do you deal with getting yelled at?

I want a new nursing job, one with NO physicians! Doesn't that sound peaceful?

Well thanks for listening...

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

well, you COULD make it someone else's problem. Do you have an employee satsifaction committee or someone in Admin whose job it is to keep MD's content? I would approach them with "What recommendations do you have for preventing this type action from occuring"? Maybe there is a systems problem when the MD gets two calls for the same thing and the second caller is not aware of the first caller's actions.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

Nope, not sucking up at all. Just being friendly, like I would with anyone else.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

This sort of bullying behavior is yet, another reason why patients don't get the care they are due. How many times have nurses had to deal with being yelled at and humilated by other nurses, supervisors, doctors and CNAs? And, how many times have we wasted time pondering when and what to say so that we are not plummeted by these insensitive clods??

There is no reason to apologize to him for sure, but I would find out about the policy for the future, because the smallest things to mention to people can be overlooked until they are confronted with it. Maybe it is common practice that physicians contact their own consults, but you need to know that. In the meantime, I would bump it up to my supervisor first to see for one, how and if she/he is supportive, and if not, you know if you want to remain there for awhile, that you may have to tactfully advocate for yourself. I STRONGLY suspect that I would have hung up on jerko as well.

[smcabee]

Im a male nurse and I get yelled at once and only one by any physician. If I get yelled at I interrupt them and inform them that I am a professional adult and have a college degree just like they have a college degree and we are both in our jobs for the best interest of our patients and unless they choose to treat me with some respect then our conversation is over and my next conversation will be with administration and the chief of staff. While its wrong in the first place for them to yell, scream or hollar like a little 2 year old who didnt get their piece of candy, nurses need to step up and stand up for themselves.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

I work in a call enter, and I've dealt with my share of screaming, swearing customers. As soon as they start, I say "We can discuss this, like rational human beings, or I can end this call. Which would you prefer?" A few have hung up, but the vast majority stop.

[Sue Damones]

This thought came to me too - nurses don't call physicians for consults, docs do.

As to yelling - I am older too Ruby . . . .and don't put up with it. But it took me awhile.

steph

Wait a second... I ALWAYS call consults!! I didn't know that there were places where the doctors called their own consults! Once in a while I see this happen, but usually where I work, there will be "consult renal- Dr. ____." Then I call the renal doctor and let them know of the consult. Is this not the norm???

[TiredMD]

Once in a while I see this happen, but usually where I work, there will be "consult renal- Dr. ____." Then I call the renal doctor and let them know of the consult. Is this not the norm???

It used to be very common, and still occurs, though primarily in private-practice facilities. In most academic centers, this practice is long-dead, as it should be.

If I need a colleague to see a patient, I should be the one telling him why. Having nursing call my consults is as ridiculous as when the nurses have their techs call me.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

I would have said, "I apologize for the disturbance, but the ER Physician did not inform me that you had already been contacted....oops, call light going off, gotta go!! Have a great night Dr. Cardiologist!!!"

...and let those two battle it out.

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

It used to be very common, and still occurs, though primarily in private-practice facilities. In most academic centers, this practice is long-dead, as it should be.

If I need a colleague to see a patient, I should be the one telling him why. Having nursing call my consults is as ridiculous as when the nurses have their techs call me.

Thank you!

I'll add that to my list of reasons why I'd love to work with you.

[platon20]

Nurses calling consults is ridiculous.

You call a consult when you need a particular clinical question answered, NOT just for a generic "we need you to see this patient" stuff.

For example, if a pt with chest pain/MI is found to have a small subdural bleed, then the cardiologist might consult the neurologist to ask if its OK to anticoagulate him. The neurologist is going to want a lot of information--the precise location of the bleed (i.e. "left side" is not good enough) any h/o CVA or ICH, previous h/o anticoagulation, current mental status, etc, in order to make his decision. 99% of the time, the nurse will not know this info, and therefore the nurse has no business explaining that in a phone call.

For the nurses who "call" consults, what do you tell the consultant? "We're consulting you because we have a patient with high blood pressure?" That would make my blood boil if I was a consultant.

Consultants are designed to answer clinically specific questions and they need to speak to other doctors to best facilitate this. I imagine if the nurse calls the consult, the consultant is just going to have to page the referring doctor anyways, regardless of what the nurse says. Which makes the policy of putting the nurse in the loop totally stupid.

[TiredMD]

I'll add that to my list of reasons why I'd love to work with you.

I'm a pathological workaholic and obsessive about every facet of the patients on our service. I am not generally friendly and all that matters to me is work.

You wouldn't like to work with me. Few do.

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

I'm a pathological workaholic and obsessive about every facet of the patients on our service. I am not generally friendly and all that matters to me is work.

You wouldn't like to work with me. Few do.

Dude- I didn't say I wanted to marry you.

You're very hard on yourself. You're alright in my book.