I used to work night shift as a nurse. One night many years ago, I received a patient on my unit from the emergency room. My patient was accompanied by his lovely wife. When I introduced myself to them as being their nurse, I noticed immediately he was in severe pain. I reviewed his chart and orders, the doctor had not ordered any pain medications for him, just written to admit him to the unit.
I called the doctor who told me he was not going to order anything until he reviewed the patient’s chart and saw them. I was confused, because he did see them in the emergency room, so why the delay? I tried to ask, but he insisted he would be up to the unit soon and then hung up.
I apologized to the patient and the wife, relaying the doctor’s message. Several minutes later, the doctor comes up and I ask him again for any pain medications I could give as my patient was still having severe pain. The doctor told me no, then proceeded to gather a bunch of charts, sit at the nursing station and ignore me.
I went back to the patient’s room again, apologized and told them that the doctor was here but was wanting to review charts first before making orders. The wife I could tell was becoming angry as her poor husband had been having severe pain with no relief. She asked me where the doctor was and I gladly escorted her to the nursing station. I told the doctor that the patient’s wife wanted to talk to him.
I remember her ripping into him about the wait, her husband suffering and his refusal to write for any medication. He immediately apologized and gave me orders for medications that could be given immediately.
So yay for family members who can yell at doctors because I can’t.
Comments
DO NOT piss off a nurse. EVER
Thank you for all the hard work you. I always appreciate you but never more on the holidays, I know you would rather be at home with your family. Those in your job are angels on earth.
I have been that man’s wife. My mother had a femoral hernia and was basically screaming for over an hour with nothing to help her, she got morphine pretty fast once I found a doctor to shout at.
Nurses are absolutely essential help.
Thank you for your caring.
I’m wondering why the ER didn’t control his pain in the first place.
What a dick of a doctor. My hat is off to you OP. It sucks he was such a jerk to you.
I’m glad the wife tore him a new one. “Do no harm…” does not mean “do nothing.”
So good. I was the only member of our family who could be there for my brother in law who had to have gallbladder surgery for a truly rotten gallbladder. The big surgery. He came from recovery onto the floor in agony. I called my best friend who was a nurse and she told me to go out to the nurse’s station and raise cane, not at the nurses but because his pain wasn’t covered. Turned out he hadn’t received meds before he was sent up AND the orders were sent for a different floor. She rescued him. Nurses can only help as much as they are allowed.
Nurses stay nurses because they care and want to help. They are not treated the best by patients, families, and their doctors. They are overworked, underpaid, and too often underappreciated!
Yet they stay nurses!
I overheard a nurse telling another nurse that a patient threw things at her because he didn’t like his soft food diet. I cannot imagine having to give care to someone acting like a 3 yr old brat. But nurses do it.
12 hour shifts, 24 hour double shifts, nurses do it.
You know what they do on top of all that? Go home, make dinner, listen to and resolve their family’s issues, laundry, housekeeping, grocery shopping! Then they go for another 12 hour shift, or another double!
ALWAYS BE GOOD TO THE NURSES! They deserve to be respected and cherished. They are amazing humans!
I called the patient advocate for my husband when I had to deal with that shit. Listening to him moan in pain for 6hrs and I had enough. He shattered his knee and was admitted for surgery. Told them if I’m gonna be paying out the ass for this hospital stay they will damn well make sure he is comfortable. It worked too.
This is why everyone admitted should have someone who can advocate for them. Nurses, bless their souls, can only do so much, but a patient’s advocate can figuratively stand on the doctor’s desk to get results. I’ve done it for both my wife and son.
Italian nurse here, 42 years of work next month, 30 of which in ICU.
I DO yell at doctor to advocate for my patients. I cannot tell it hasn’t cost me some troubles, but as I use to tell them: I work for my patients, and WITH doctors, not the opposite.
I’m retiring in September and I’m proud of my being a nurse. To tell the truth, it’s always been really funny when doctors tell me I have a bad attitude with them and then realizing they pay very much attention to what I say.
Man. You, you wonderful nurse sound very similar to the nurses my MIL had when she was brought in with a stroke. I knew exactly what was wrong, the nurses knew what was wrong. Dickhead dr came in and asked me if she was always this emotional. I swear I nearly hit him as I said well yeah I’d be teary if I thought I was having a stroke and couldn’t speak too. Then had to walk away from him. Didn’t see that Dr again the entire time we were in the ER thanks to the nurses. And yes she did indeed have a stroke
I’ve bitched out doctors for not giving me pain medication. I’ve also fired some doctors, including specialists, for trying to blame me for me getting sick enough to need to be hospitalized. I’ve been told I was drug seeking, that I didn’t take medication properly, all kinds of things. But when I advocate for myself, some will back off and apologize for their erroneous assumptions. Honestly, pain medication doesn’t usually affect me properly, I apparently have a higher pain tolerance, or my neuropathy affects my pain receptors, or something. I wish I could get the same effect that others do, except that at least I can walk out of the hospital and go cold turkey without a problem.
My dad has a similar story. The man had 2 kids before my youngest sister’s birth was induced. He’d seen 2 babies come out of his wife in about 30 minutes. He knew exactly when to wander out to the nurses station and tell them his kid was coming. They very quickly went from “lmao no bro she’s not having her baby 30 minutes after an injection” to getting the OB/GYN to run from the opposite side of the hospital.
My brother ripped to shreds a dr and nurse who within earshot said get rid of him (dr,) and nurse (yeah he only has man flu).
Both women then laughed.
Two days later after a chest x-ray by my own dr I skipped everyone in the waiting room .
I had bilateral pneumonia. Ended up in ICU.
Cardiologist said if I hadn’t come back there was a good chance I wouldn’t last the night.
Brother spotted both women on the way through ED.
Gave them the biggest FU
I ripped an AH surgeon a new one when my son was critically ill. He was treating my son as a non human- referring to him as an “interesting case”. He didn’t know I am also an RN. He tried pulling “you don’t understand “. I told him I understood very well and if he couldn’t approach my son as a human deserving of compassion he could leave and not come back. He left. The doc in charge decided another surgeon would be better.
My husband wonders if the guys balls ever grew back.
My mother just got out of hospital. She wouldn’t let me visit because she knew that I would hunt down her doctor and tear him a plethora of new ones.
She was there for over a week and saw her doctor maybe 4 times. The SOB even tried sending her home after 2 days because he essentially couldn’t be bothered with her. Thankfully, admin and the nurses advocated heavily for my mother to stay and basically took over her care, including ordering meds and tests (he signed off on everything, just didn’t care what happened). I’ve lost count of how many times nurses have stepped in and saved my mother from negligent doctors.
Unfortunately, my mother is a frequent flyer, and the doctor is unlikely to be fired (has multiple complaints, but we live in an area with a doctor deficit). I can’t wait to meet him one day 🙂🙂🙂🤬
I just wanted to thank you for your service.
My husband had a stroke many years ago and was taken by ambulance late at night. Next morning, after 8+hrs, he still had not been given any pain relief. The doctor? Had written him up for oral paracetamol. He was having a stroke and literally COULD NOT SWALLOW. Not even saliva. Needless to say, once I was with him, thay got changed pretty quickly.
I’m a nurse also and this is my story of petty revenge. My wife had had an MI in one hospital, been revived and sent to another hospital for a CABG (bypass) but it was Friday so they told me they were going to send her home for the weekend.
I resisted of course because she had nearly died witout any warning at the other hospital – just collapsed – she was there for something else and it was only by great luck that she collapsed in the hospital rather than at home, where I’d have done CPR, but the ‘save rate’ is very low without a defribrillator. So, the doctor is giving me a song and a dance about how we’re ‘all on the same team, and they couldn’t keep her over the weekend.’ blah, blah, blah.
I finally said, We’re not on the same team. I’m on her team..you are on thier team, but fine – send her home. We live on the third floor. She falls, and breaks anything, hits her head whatever, I’ll be sueing you, the hospital, your attending…basically anyone I can get my hands on. Then I’ll go to the Board of licensure and start there, and I’ll make sure your license is investigated. Then I’ll write an aerticle to the editor and put what you and this hospital did there. But fine… send her home: It’s your license.
She stayed and lived another 15 years. I miss her every day.
>So yay for family members who can yell at doctors because I can’t.
Thank you. I ALMOST want to show this to my mother in law because she got mad at me for questioning the doctor when my husband was in the hospital — but she wouldn’t reflect and learn, so 😮💨.
I called a Dr about leaving my Dad in a neck brace that was fit wrong. He yelled at me that NOBODY ever called him on a Saturday over a “neck brace that looked funny”. I ripped him a new a-hole because I’d been trying to get the nurses to fix it for 5 hours, and they all said they couldn’t touch it. He shows up over an hour and a half later, gives me a dirty look and opens his b*tch mouth to start it up again, then looked at my Dad, turned white, and called the nurses. Dad said he leaned over him and said, “Please don’t sue me”. He did get excellent care after that for the TWO MONTHS he was in the hospital after the wreck he needed the brace for. He should have sued that arrogant ass.
Had a good one once. Our home team doctor had ordered bloods on my patient and specifically asked me to ask the anaesthetist to take it when he did the pain round because her veins were so tricky. So I show him the order and he goes off, “we’re the pain team, not the pathology team!”. Says I need to try drawing back on an IV before daring to ask. So I do, cannula tissues, now she needs a new IVC as well. He comes in to review her while I’m there, I ask again, refuses again – says we need to have a go first despite her history – and leaves the room. The husband chased him out and down the corridor yelling at him to do it. He came in and did it very quietly after that.
This happened about 20 years ago. I was living with my 86yo grandmother and 8 worked a sales job. I sometimes worked late so she had meals on wheels delivered for dinner so I didn’t worry about her eating if I was coming home late. I came home one night and she wasn’t there I started to get worried because it was almost 9 pm. Finally I called my aunt and she reminded me that she had a 4pm doctor’s appt. 8 jumped in my car and when I got there she was sitting in his waiting room. I asked to see him and we went into another room where I chewéd his ass from one side to to the other for having her sitting there 5 hours waiting for him. I took her home and made her dinner . My aunt came over a week later and chewed his ass out again then got her a nice female doctor.
I know medical professionals hate it but I’m PAYING them to do a job. (No literally, I’m uninsured lol I directly pay them.) And if they’re not going to do what’s necessary I’m happy to fire them and find someone who will just like I would a plumber or mechanic. I’ve had too many bad outcomes from lazy doctors and NPS who should not be left unsupervised, I have absolutely no issue complaing, recording them and firing the bad ones.
I lost 10 years of my childhood, a tendon in my ankle, and gained 40lbs because of doctors who wouldn’t listen. Now I have zero chill about it.
Nurse here….i’ve done the same. It offends me if someone clearly needs pain relief and they’re not getting it.
The lack of empathy by some in the medical profession is astounding….
My wife is an independent health advocate. Among many other services she offers is being with her clients in the ER and during hospitalization to protect her clients, usually from such doctors.
I wish there was an explanation to as why the dr kept putting off the pain medication.
I only hate that if my wife did this at the local hospital they would simply refuse to see us and have us thrown out by security. I’m not being hyperbolic either I had to sit idly and listen as this happened to the man in the room next to mine one time when I was in emergency.
Had a procedure and the Dr didn’t write any painkillers. I’m writhing in pain and my nurse is on the phone with him in my hospital room telling him he’d better write something or she’ll personally call him every two hours for each individual med until I was released.
I thanked her profusely and wrote the hospital afterwards praising her. Can’t ever thank her enough.
Don’t mess with a mom or a wife 😂
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I shattered my heel in a hard landing with a parachute. I came out of shock and started screaming in the ER. A nurse told me to stop swearing because there were also children in the ER. I told her I didn’t care, I was in agony. ( none too softly) I got pethidine, which only dulled the pain to- painful. I guess they couldn’t ignore the scene i inadvertently caused.
Why is the healthcare industry so blatantly evil?
I guess if you want to legally torture people, go into healthcare.
When I was first dating my now wife, her mother was in and out of the hospital a lot because she was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer. The family would try their best to have someone with her through out the day. But obviously due to work and other things like taking care of the pets, showering, eating etc. would mean that she would be left alone for some time. The hospital would wheel her out for a test here, procedure there, whatever. One time they did that and a family member come up to an empty hospital room and no one at the nursing station knew what was going on. So instead of getting mad they asked for a note to be added to Mom’s chart. The note simply asked that someone text or call a family member if she was being taken for a procedure. MIL could not be counted on since she was on Dilaudid, or asleep, or otherwise not able to use a phone the best.
Well I get a call from my gf that they (hospital) aren’t communicating with anyone, also for some reason an X-ray tech told MIL that she doesn’t have cancer as bad as she is being told and she isn’t “dying” and has more time than she thinks. The attending also seemed to actively try not to show up ever, if he did he was the most rude Dr I’ve ever seen behave towards a terminal patient, and her oncologist also barely spoke to anyone. I went to the nurses station and told them I want the attending, head nurse, and the oncologist all in MIL’s room and or on speaker phone. We are ALL going to get on the same fucking page, or I’m filing a complaint with the board, or whoever I can to change things. Turns out when medical staff actually take the time to communicate things magically happen the way they are supposed to. The attending was a lot nicer (I also understand that MIL isn’t the only PT and he is absolutely overworked) but we got communication from the nurses, stopped having MIL told medical opinions from staff not in a position to levy diagnosis and once everyone understood the situation we actually got hospice care initialized. MIL went home and wanted to pass there with family.
I was a RN full time for 36 years. That was the best tactical move! Family members can say things in a way that we can’t. My only hope is the doctor didn’t take it out on you afterwards… because that can happen. My response was always ” We need to work as a team to provide the best possible care outcome for our patients” that usually shut them down.
The fact that Drs don’t prescribe pain medication anymore really upsets me.
I’m a chronic pain patient and have never been able to get pain medication because the 2 fractures in my spine, kyphosis, herniated discs, degeneration of the r discs, and thoracic outlet syndrome “Shouldn’t hurt that badly.” Which is just such bullshit because how are you going to to tell me how much pain I’m in?
Instead, I have spent 100s of thousands of dollars going to places that “help” you deal with chronic pain in a more mindful approach. Yes, it helps, but I have to spend about 5 hours a day working on my “morning and night routines.” Plus, I have to get 2 or 3 massages a week ($225 each) and PT ($200) is once a week, just to get through the week and the dealing of chronic pain. So, I’m spending around $800 – $900 week, which adds up… haha obviously.
So, if I miss these appointments due to travel, or something else, I have to play catch up, which is a miserable process because I’m at a 7-8 on the pain scale for a couple weeks before I’m back at a 5-6 on the pain scale, which I can “deal Ru
I had a surgery that was going to be performed by the world’s greatest doctor (in my opinion). When the pre-op nurse asked who was doing my surgery, I said his name. She said that the nurses referred to him as doctor wonderful. My second surgery and another nurse said that he was “doctor perfect”. Obviously when he told me that he was retiring, I sat in the parking lot and cried for 10 minutes. Nurses know the truth.
In my family, it’s my older brother. Doctors who are competent and professional enjoy talking with him. Others, not so much. 😄
My daughter had been in labor for over 24 hours. Finally it was time for the delivery but the Dr still hadn’t shown up. The nurse told me he was always late and never in a hurry to get to the delivery room making women suffer until he got there. 15 min later still not there. Another 15 min and I AM PISSED! I asked how to get a hold of him and the same nurse gladly gave me his cell number. I called him some rather awful names and told him he had 5 minutes to get there and I would be filing a lawsuit for negligence. He breezed in 3 minutes later. What a dick
One of my favorite stories about my grandmother took place at a hospital. My mom was in a car accident around age 16, and she went to the ER. They said she was fine and sent her home. A few hours later, she started throwing up, and it was pretty obvious she had a concussion. My mom, grandmother, and grandfather all went back to the hospital. When they got there, my mom pointed out to my grandmother the doctor who had treated her. Grandma, who was close to five feet even, proceeded to walk over to the doctor, yell at him, and then beat him with her purse. My grandpa finally had to step in and say, “If you don’t stop hitting him, he can’t help my mom.” She did stop hitting the doctor after that, and my mom got the treatment she needed.
Grandma was also known for going into the school and hitting the principal with her purse. My mom said that if you picked up her purse, it felt like she was carrying around a brick in it!
My daughter was in severe pain after orthopedic surgery but the doctor refused to believe us. Thank goodness for nurses. They helped us work around him.
I had to do this for my dad last year. He bulged a disc in his back and didn’t realize it for a few days. He was hoping rest and ice would help but we ended up having to get an ambulance. Over the next agonizing week, the doctor he had kept blowing off my dad’s pain and condition and wouldn’t order imaging. I ended up grilling him and making him tell me why he wasn’t ordering imaging and why he didn’t seem to care or give a shit. He eventually ordered imaging which was the worst pain my dad ever had (and he is a stoic guy who doesn’t show his pain). The doctors didn’t really show himself much after that. Thankfully my dad is pretty much back to normal now, but I do not regret yelling at the doctor. Screw you Dr. Shepherd.
As a husband, I’ve spent too many times in hospitals being an advocate for my wife. But that’s what’s needed for these overworked (or sometimes arrogant) doctors.
I have a rep at my local hospital, for having incredibly difficult to find veins which makes drawing blood a pain in the ass. Even the experienced nurses occasionally take 2-3 tries. They also send the new, cocky nurses to draw my blood as a lesson to not be overly confident and be ready for unusual situations even for basic procedures.
I was admitted for an overnight stay for a routine checkup. This doctor comes in with a bunch of trainee doctors. He keeps picking on this one girl, and was incredibly condescending. That seriously ticked me off. As I needed to draw blood he assigned her to do so, while he went to the other patients. She tried 3 times, but was unsuccessful, and was on the verge of tears. I calmed her down and told her not to worry, even the head nurse had trouble getting it first try. The doctor came back, berated her for failing and that she would amount to nothing. He then takes the kit from her, yells at her to see how it is done. He fails the first time, and I look him right in the eye and asks “I thought you were suppose to be a doctor?” There was some giggling among the trainees and he was starting to go red in the face. Second attempt he fails again, and I go “I thought you were going to show them how it is done?” He was now a bright shade of red, very reminiscent of a cartoon kettle. Third time he fails again, and I just yell “can I get a professional in here? And a change of doctor?” The head nurse comes over and gets it first try, and the trainees burst into laughter. The doctor proceeds to storm off, with the girl thanking me. The head nurse also thanks me for putting the “arrogant prick” in his place.
I still see that doctor around at times when I go back for my follow ups. He definitely recognizes me still, because even as he avoids me he still turns red.
Want to read something horrible, review what happened to singer Marty balin at hospital nyc.
Sounds similar to what happened with my husband. He had to have a tooth removed. Since his handwriting is bad, and mine isn’t, I was the one who filled out the form about any meds he was currently using, and anything he was allergic to (the most commonly prescribed antibiotic). I am very certain I wrote it down clearly.
When he was done (surgeon was kind of a butcher, so that was bad enough), we went down to the hospital pharmacy. I told my husband to sit down, I would get the medication. You may have 1 guess as to which antibiotic was given to me. If you think it was the one he could not have, you are also correct.
I told them they made a mistake, since the patient was allergic. “Incorrect, because in that case the doctor would not have prescribed it, and he should have mentioned it on the form.”
I totally went ballistic on them. Told them that I had to fill out the form, because of my husband’s handwriting, and I was 100% certain I had filled it out correctly, and that I was not leaving without a different kind of antibiotics.
It was already past normal hours, so they probably wanted to close down for the night. I was told to wait and they would investigate. About 15-20 minutes later they came back and gave me different meds for my husband. No apology, nothing about them almost screwing him over… Nothing. We will never go back there!
Dear doctors,
Nurses do not work for you, they work with you to care for patients. Treat them with respect and recognize they are the front line and see more than you can. And never, ever, EVER, make them angry . . . You will live to regret that decision.
Nurses and IT are two groups you always want on your side!!
My mom was in hospital for bowel obstruction due to incompetence by the surgeon who stuffed her intestines back in after back surgery.
She was discharged after back surgery but she was getting sicker by the day. No poops. I kept calling the Dr because I knew something was wrong. But I received the, it’s normal, lecture every time. We visited her at home throughout the week and when I got to her house one afternoon, she was green. Call her PCP who says get to ER now. We arrive and guess what dickhead is down there to meet us? Mr Big Balls Surgeon. When he walked into her room, she was so out of it, in terrible pain, and he says, whoops, you feeling yucky? I told him he knows she been feeling “yucky” all week, but refused to treat her. That’s when it got really ugly. I told him he would not be laying one finger on my mother since he is clearly the idiot that put her in this position to begin with. Then he tried to blame my mom for obstructing her own bowels. I went to get the nurse and told her to remove the dr from the room now because I was not going to fool with him anymore. The dr called security to have me removed for causing a disturbance. What he didn’t like is that he was being called out by a nobody in front of his peers and the entire ER for being a jackass. Security shows up with my mom’s PCP, and I thought oh shit I’m really in trouble now lol. But, I didn’t realize her PCP was also the Director of Internal Medicine at the hospital. He walked over to the surgeon and whispered something in his ear and Big Balls’ face went from red to white. He walked away. My mom had another major surgery, lost some of her bowels and was in hospital for two weeks.
I am an RN and I have no trouble tearing into doctors. I have been a nurse for 34 yrs. I have been yelled at by many doctors.
Meanwhile, 3 years ago I had a partial lumbar fusion, and my second night of my stay the pain meds stopped working. My surgeon had informed me earlier that day that she was on-call that night and to let the nurses know to call her if anything came up. The nurses that night outright rejected my obscene amount of pain, called me a pill-seeker, and refused to call my doctor because, “she should have given her phone number to me and it’s not their responsibility to call her.” W h a t.
The only way I saw any path through anything, knowing my surgeon wouldn’t see it until the morning, was to send messages to her through the online portal every time the nurses did shitty dismissive things through the night.
Longer story short, 6am comes, and my surgeon comes in and has an absolute SHITFIT, removed all the nurses that I had that night from my care rotation, and gladly changed up my pain meds and dosage. The final kicker was that the dosage amount I was given WASN’T EVEN THAT HIGH.
Every nurse I’ve relayed that story to has been appalled, so that’s nice to know I wasn’t nuts.
MrsOM once told a doctor, “either you give him something for pain or you can sleep with him tonight.” I got the pain meds right away. lol
Thank you for being the advocate we need.
I’m a nurse and I will definitely give a doctor an earful if it’s warranted. Doctors are not my bosses or superiors.
I have been this wife.
Thank you for knowing when to point us at the PITA and unclip the leash.
(My husband had a blood clot. Insurance says this, med staff says tgat, pharmcy says other thing. Meanwhile, father of three has a clot going untreated because “well, it was thatotherdepartment’s job to do this… they are being lazy”.
Hello motherfucker hey hi how ya durrn. I will EAT you.
I began writing a letter to complain about the doctor, the nurse told him. I’d been waiting hours and he’d given me something, but it wasn’t pain meds. When he finally came up and I explained again what the nurse already had multiple times he says, ‘oh that wouldn’t help your pain’. Why give something that won’t help? After he’d finally given me pain meds he had the nurse ask if I was going to file the complaint.
I had a severely agitated patient and they were refusing to order any medications for them.
We’re talking already in restraints but literally screaming at the top of their lungs agitated.
Refuses to come up and see them and refusing to order anything.
So I decided to take the phone into the room. Called from the patient’s bedside.
Resident answered and started freaking out about “what is that noise in the background?!”
Oh it’s just the patient that you’ve been ignoring all night that I’ve called you about five times, this is what US and the other 33 patients on this unit are having to deal with. And then I held the phone up to the patient so that they could really hear it.
Magically a resident showed up like 10 minutes later.
Sometimes you have to take extra measures to get heard. It shouldn’t require that, but you do what you have to do.
Yes this is one of many fucking reasons I retired from
the ER after 20 years.
Pro tip: anyone can call the main hospital’s operator from an in-house phone and say “I need the house supervisor, please.” Say it fast and professional, like you’re a busy nurse. Boom! The person who is overseeing the entire hospital is listening to you.
After a surgery I was on a pain med that did nothing for my pain; I’d never needed pain meds that strong before. I kept telling the nurse I was in pain and asking for more meds within an hour of a dose. I don’t know what was going on in the background but I finally snapped and said something like “we’re in the United States of America and I have insurance. I AM IN PAIN AND KNOW THERE ARE OTHER DRUGS YOU CAN GIVE ME.” 🤣 I can now be specific about which pain med works for me when needed.
Doctors flexing this kind of evil power makes my blood boil black.
I have nothing but respect for nurses, especially since one literally saved my life. I was in severe renal failure due to my body not taking too kindly to my chemo treatments and other cancer medications. I had a team of three doctors standing around my bed who were talking to each other and were absolutely stumped as to why I still couldn’t hold any food or fluids down. Luckily I had a no nonsense nurse in my room as well who was not at all intimidated by doctors. She just looked at those doctors and said “well why in the hell is this man not on a feeding tube while you figure it all out?” Those doctors just looked at each other as though they had literally just learned the secret of life. Needless to say, I was in the OR first thing the next morning and got the feeding tube. I spent nearly four months on that feeding tube which was definitely not fun but was still a hell of a lot better than the alternative of certain death. I will never forget that nurse and how her standing up for her patient saved my life.
Reminds me of the time, when I had a call from my actively in labour sister one morning. She told me her partner who has a blood disorder (think a type of sickle cell one). He had halved his blood count from 140 to 60 overnight. They said he needed bood, but as it’s a bank holiday weekend there were no doctors around so he will have to wait three days.
Yep, big nope from me.
I told her to go back in, and remind them I worked at their sister hospital. That they needed to have a second opinion, as if there are no drs around. The hospital can’t treat people and would be shut.
He got his blood transfusion, and my sister had a baby girl.
You CAN tell at doctors and you were wrong not to here.
This sounds like being a good nurse. The doctor was definitely an uncaring AH. Yay for patient’s wife! I very much appreciated nurses like you when my husband was in the hospital and rehab before he died.
I wish I would have had an advocate the last time I was an inpatient. I threw up a lot – they didn’t change the anti-nausea medication. I used up all the barf bags in the room. I was in severe pain. They didn’t call the doctor. I hit the call button and was ignored for almost an hour (they blamed the shift change- but they came running when I finally was desperate and scooted off the alarm pad on the bed). Sometimes the nurse is the problem for not calling the doctor, or sometimes for not giving all the ”as needed” pain meds when they are needed.
Yeah, I stopped going to the VA’s ER because they stopped giving out pain medication. Literally the ONLY reason I would go is if I had an accident and was in SEVERE pain. The last time I literally just walked out because the attending was like, “Well, I’m not giving you any narcotics.” like I was a fuckin drug fiend when all I wanted was relief. So, what’d I do? Go home and got shit faced plastered to kill the pain. Cause THATS healthier, ya dumb fuck attending.
My now-husband had to do this the night before my gallbladder removal – the/hospital pharmacist/ thought I was on too many meds and refused to fill them. Most of them were /my psych meds/ for depression and insomnia.
Pulled the pin on a emotional wife Grenade and just walked away lol
My mother was a ob/gyn nurse for 40 years and had NO problem advocating for her patients. She never jumped for a Dr’s snapping fingers and insisted on her nurse’s being treated properly. She would go straight to top management if there was an issue! Loved that woman!!!
Half my job as husband is to protect my wife from rude, stupid, or hostile hospital workers. My voice carries when I need it to.
I let stuff go at first, but I forcefully advocate for my wife. She’s had pain meds ordered every 2 hours. She’s getting those meds. I will call their boss, I will get loud (when necessary), and I will push back. I don’t let hospital staff push me (or her) around.
I believe she’s received better care because of it.
Do not! EVER! piss off your nurses. As a doctor or a patient. Nurses are who you want on your side.