My vacation officially started when I clocked out yesterday evening at 7:30 pm. It could not have come fast enough. I literally had my worst work week to date. Yesterday topped the cake.
I still consider myself a new nurse; I’ve only had my license for a little under three years. I definitely consider myself a new labor and delivery nurse because I’ve only been doing this job on my own (officially) since December, so not even a whole six months. I still make some mistakes and I’m learning to not just be okay with that but to also learn from it.
So yesterday I had the wonderful pleasure of working with a specific doctor that about 95% of the nurses on my unit HATE. I would love to put his name out there but that wouldn’t be fair (especially while I’m still employed there). My issue is…and I guess the question I’m putting out there is: why do nurses continue to let (some) doctors be jerks to them? And why is it continually written off as “well that’s just the way s/he is”?
I have a very low tolerance for rudeness. I believe that you can disagree and still be respectful. I believe that you can not like a person and still be respectful. I was raised that way. So, when I come into a work environment and these doctors are just rude for no reason, I truly question how they were raised. I made a mistake yesterday – mind you it wasn’t life threatening – I called a patient complete who was actually 6cm. Oops. My bad. I’m sorry. My checks are still a little wonky. I made a mistake nonetheless and I wasted the doctor’s time. I get it. Time passes and I go to check my patient again and this time she is complete, so I call. He basically told me to find a better nurse to confirm my check. I got a second nurse who also said the patient was complete. He continues berating me over the phone to the point where I had to tell him – look, I made a mistake earlier and I get that but I’m still new and you need to be a little bit more patient with me. He proceeds to tell me, “believe me, I’m being nice”. My response: if that’s what you call nice, then you should nicer – and I hung up.
I was so angry all the way home. I think I even fell asleep angry. I also have to admit that it shook my confidence a little bit. Like I said, I’ve had a rough week. I’m glad I’m officially on vacation because it gives me time to gather myself and prepare myself mentally for when I return to work in May. Hopefully I can go back with a different mindset and with a little bit of my confidence back.
How do you guys handle rude doctors? Have you ever refused to work with a doctor? Do you feel like your coworkers would support you if you took a stand? Let me know what you think
Xoxo,
Ash, RN