Nurse Anesthetist Nurse Surgical Emergency
You won't like this...but the doctor is not always wrong. Yes, of course it is never acceptable to be verbally abusive, but there just happen to be situations where frustration over a nurses inability to understand a priority or the severity of a situation leads to a reaction.
For example, nurses love rules, because having lots of rules makes up for a lack of power. So, they will use rules and policies to justify behavior that may not be appropriate to the situation. It happened the other night in our operating room suite. A post-op patient who had neck surgery had a spike in blood pressure which led to a major hematoma in her neck that was pressing on her trachea. It was a true emergency with only a few minutes for the surgeon to open the incision, release the pressure and get the bleeding stopped. The nurse did not recognize the urgency of the crises and was not going to let the patient be released back to the OR without a consent and some other paperwork. The surgeon was not sugary sweet, he was firm and told the nurse that if she didn't act immediately the patient could die. The nurse overreacted to the firmness of the surgeon and immediately became passive aggressive and fussed at the fact that she didn't get any respect.
As we know, three are many ways respect can be earned, through education, status, intelligence, but it is not a given, just because you showed up for work. The interesting part of the dire situation in our operating room is that another nurse saved the day. A very skilled and diplomatic nurse anesthetist simply got the surgeon to help her take the patient back to surgery. The bleeding was stopped, the incision closed, the patient survived and all is well.
The nurse anesthetist sat down with the RN and used the situation as a teaching moment and discussed the seriousness of the situation and then she said in no uncertain terms, the next time she did anything that stupid there would be a letter sent to the board of nursing and a few other things that will remain between the two of them.
Arrogance and ignorance are two incompatible behaviors and should be dealt with according to the situation. In my many years of clinical practice, I have found that the best physicians are usually the nicest. And while it is not my job, nor have I been educated in trying to figure out the reasons for arrogance, I usually can diffuse it by saying to the physician something like this, "why are you talking to me that way?" Then I repeat their answer and then conclude by telling them to never talk to me like that again. Then, I take out my notebook and make a notation of what was said and the circumstances. Does it always work? No, but at least I feel better and don't go home and kick the cat.
