I need to vent a little. Please excuse.

I thought when I went from a Hospital unit to a clinic run by Doctors, that my work atmosphere would slow down a bit.

I was way wrong.

In my clinic I am one of 2 nurses who works solely for an Endocrinologist. We don't have any assistants. We share an office with 9 OB/GYNs and their staff, so we basically share the front desk, records dept, and the Lab. We are all paid by the same company.

Sometimes the Ob/gyn phone triage nurses are ordered by the boss to take some of our calls so that me and the other nurse can do treatments with patients (Time consuming fertility type Txs) We also see an average of 30 patients a day for appointments.

The Ob/Gyn Nurses HATE us. They hate our Doctor (who's very picky about protocols and charting) So whenever this happens they give us a lot of attitude and from what I hear...give our patients, who call, a lot of attitude.

Now I could take over doing primarily Phone triage but that would leave no one with training to do treatments. I can't be in 2 places at once. :call2::call:

We also get no slack from our doctor...who can't understand why her charts aren't being completed at the end of the day. Our Doctor is clueless as to just how much her 2 nurses actually "DO". (Refill requests and Phone calls are returned Same day......no exceptions! If lab results are called back to the patients within 5 days...she freaks out.)

Me and the other nurse work about 3-6 hours of overtime a/week to get everything done....there's no time for chatting or pleasantries, yet the OB/GYN nurses have plenty of time for breaks and leave at 5pm everyday with their full 1 hour lunches. (we are lucky to fit in a 30 minute lunch) :sleep:

I'm fighting the urge to hold a grudge and it's difficult to see things from their perspective. :darth:

Ok Jodi....it's time to take a deep breath and then slowly exhale. While exhaling think of the reasons you LIKE your job. I know you like it, you've blogged that you like it. Was today just an exceptionally rough day?

I've found that when people (other nurses) are gruff and mean to fellow nurses it generally stems from some sort of jealousy involved. Perhaps they are a bit unsettled because working for the doctor that you work for allows you to be more involved in the actual handling of patients and doing procedures that I've never heard of (IUIs)and they will never do working for who they work for.

As for your specific doctor, you're right, she probably has no idea what you and your co workers do. I'd imagine if her staff left she'd know pretty quick how hard you are working for her. I'm sure it won't come to that extreme but perhaps having a little heart to heart talk with her and your fellow co-worker would help. I'm sure she will not be pleased to find out that the triage nurses are copping an attitude with her patients. It's her practice Jodi, let her have a say in how to handle the difficult situation that you seem to be going through.

Best of luck.

Sounds very frustrating Jodi. I hope you can get things settled soon.

Thanks ya'll.

It was a rough day.

I'm hearing "Talk" of hiring an extra nurse for us to cover phone calls part time.

I'm hoping that happens and will allieviate the workload.

I'm still a newbie there...so I have to tread lightly still and not make any waves.

Thanks for letting me vent....I do love this job.