[er2endo]

I am a experienced nurse of 15 years and I just transfered out of the ER for a reprive...I am in shock in how the GI docs treat the Endo nurses in my unit,I know most of these doc and have never seen them behave that waythey do whil in the unit behind closed unit doors, there is one particular md that has been allowed to treat these nurses with total disrespect and he constantly demeans them...I am new to this unit and I will not allow this behavior to come towards me,(i have not yet experieced it there) but I have witnessed it towards the other nurses, they just take it and not say a word to them...the nurses state that the head nurse is aware of this behavior and has done nothing to stop it...even when I have mentioned that this is a form of work harrassment the nurses just stare at me with blankstares...what can I do? I know I have tougher skin then them coming from the er, but the md's are destroying the confidence and self esteem of these nurses...any suggestions?

[smbrn]

I just started a job where apparently nurses are expected to put up with verbal abuse by physicians. I have already been warned that if I need to call a certain MD, I can expect to get "cussed out", no matter what the reason for the call. Actually yesterday AM an LPN put a call out to a doctor to let him know that a patient's 6:30AM blood sugar registered "high", meaning the actual blood sugar had to be greater than 550 mg/dl. The MD was unimpressed and told this nurse "not to call at 6:30AM again". Why are nurses expected to put up with this? I would have been tempted to ask this MD if he wanted to d/c the patient's blood glucose monitoring since he wasn't interested in knowing if it was critical anyways. After 24 years I almost can't take nursing anymore. And where are our nurse leaders in this? Obviously nursing management expects nurses to tolerate this or it would have been stopped long ago. It can't be left up to individual nurses, who won't be supported by their nurse managers anyways, to change this situation.

[cassioo]

I would have done just as you said..ask then you want the Bg stopped since you don't want to know results...(we have come up with a protocol though to use for BG so that one really isn't a problem) I don't have a problem calling any doc anytime they can get over it and themself. We have one that calls and says where's the fire everytime he gets a call I just say right here and give him the information. AFter years of calling though I don't get any flack really they know I call when needed I do know new and old nurses though that will call at 2am to tell a doc that a baby has a diaper rash can they get something for it where I'd just get it it's just picking who you call for what and when.

[cassioo]

oh one of the hospitals has just come up with a form for calling docs because we did have so many new nurses it's kind of a fill in the blank thing..Dr Jones this is nurse XYZ I'm calling about your pt ABC she's blah blah blah we've done this and that is there anything else you want...I usually do just tell them what I want form or not and get it.

[mattsmom]

Unfortunately it can be part of the toxic 'culture' of a place when docs abuse the nurses and nobody addresses it, and/or management ignores the problem. If its too toxic for you, you may just want to move on, sadly. I've seen lone dissenters end up as scapegoats for the rest...labeled as 'bad attitudes' because they speak up against the abuse. Be careful.

[medi]

I graduated 22 years ago from a southern university and the times were just starting to change for nurses, but some of the older instructors in the dept. of nursing still taught students that nurses needed to stop whatever they were doing at a nurses station and rise when a doctor approached (for example)... among other purely demeaning things.

The dignity and scope of professionalism of the profession has come a long way but unfortunately we continue to suffer indignities such as holding one's tongue for the most part and accepting being treated as inferiors because we lack empowerment due to being "employees".

Any hospital in this land is going to bend over backwards to attract and keep the doctors that practice there. You know that, I know that, and your nurse managers know that if it came to a confrontation -- no matter how justified, or right a nurse is, the nurse, or nurse manager, is expendable to the hospital, but the doctor is not.

And therein lies the crux of it. Thankfully most doctors are decent people, but each of us has experience having to tolerate the occassional rat bastard amongst them as well. Besides doing your best on a one to one basis to get them to act better there's not much else we as a profession have the power to do.

The sad truth is that if one of them complained about a nurse to hosital administration loud & long enough hospital admin would make the problem go away by getting rid of the nurse. Turn the table around and say several nurses complain about a doc and chances are admin will also get rid of the complaining nurses to "solve the problem" and keep the doc (probably are paying his office rent and handing him envelopes with a tidy amount of cash at Christmas time as well).

Until we stop being employees and start forming practice groups like physicians do we are relatively powerless.

Why couldn't the nursing profession group together in independant practice groups similar to the way agency nursing works right now and contract to practice settings such as hospitals rather than be wage slaves of hospitals??