Four nurses, two mid-levels, two residents, and a student later complained to their respective superiors about what Sunshine had said. The particular irony in this situation was that the incompetent nurses in our weak unit had been warning Sunshine that a particular patient had been decompensating for hours. He hadn't listened. Boy was he surprised when that patient went to the pulmonary ICU!
Sunshine then got pulled into a Very Big Meeting with his boss. Said boss is a good guy, supports the nurses he works with, and has a very calm way of dealing with petulant twats like Sunshine.
Sunshine just didn't have a very good day. Poor baby.
He accosted Marcie in the hall today and asked her who had "turned him in." Marcie was kind enough to hold her tongue and not tell him that there were at least four independent complaints.
All I have to say is:
I would have told "more than just one person!"
ReplyDeleteThis makes me so very happy.
ReplyDeleteSo cool that you work with people who will actually stand up for themselves and each other, instead of just bitching. Glad you are back, btw
ReplyDeleteWell done to all involved ( except Dr Sunshine ) . Have a nice weekend . ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood for all of you.
ReplyDeletedang, it's good to read your blog. keep it coming, life permitting.
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 neuros in my town..................they are both named Dr. Sunshine. Seriously. That's their last name.
ReplyDeleteDr. Sunshine, why you gotta be such a twat?
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about this. Dr Sunshine sounds like a dick. On the other hand, the whole episode sounds like the write-up culture doing what it does; taking the focus off patient care and placing firmly on whether or not people like you or whether you can successfully be 100% inoffensive to all people at all times.
ReplyDeleteWhat Dr S got called on the carpet for was not abusive, racist, sexist, irrelevant to the job or obviously wrong. Nurses have to be better on some units than others. Maybe the surgical critical care nurses really are better! If so, wouldn't that be something the residents relying on them would need to know, so they can gauge how heavily to rely on their assessments and recommendations and when to question them?
Saying in front of the nurses on the unit that you think the nurses on the unit are weak is tactless. Said nurses then avenged the honor of their team through the complaint process. As someone who has been written up for even less than that, I don't think the habit of writing up a compliant to the manager every time you feel slighted is benefiting the culture in healthcare.
This has definitely affected my practice. I still love nurses, but I don't trust them. I watch every word I say with them. When they ignore my orders or hurt my patient, I quietly fix it as best I can, because I have no union and can't afford to get in a complaint war. I imagine the habit of writing every complaint down emerged out of the disparity of power historically and in some settings today between doctors and nurses. In my personal experience, it's mostly been a tool of bullies.