Best Kept Secrets of the OR #7- sometimes the surgeons are unpleasant

Call a spade a spade. Sometimes the surgeons are just assholes.

Full stop.

A best-kept secret of the OR is that sometimes we don’t like the surgeon.

Like at all.

Because we are people too. People with our own likes and dislikes.

These can be cases we don’t like. Ahem, OB-GYN for me. Yes, ALL of them. I definitely didn’t like my OB rotation in nursing school. Birth blood is just icky.

These can be coworkers so unpleasant that working with them is like nails on a chalkboard.

These can definitely be surgeons we don’t care for. This can be because of their political views, how they live, or how they treat their patient when the patient is under anesthesia. Or how they treat their significant other. Or how they treat their room staff. Or how they treat the charge nurse.

Make my charge nurse/circulator/scrub tech cry? You are on my shit list, doctor!

However, at the heart of it, we are there for the patient. And the finite amount of time we spend in unpleasantness is okay because it will end.

But sometimes we as the OR staff know that a surgeon just shouldn’t be operating. They may have the textbook knowledge but they are dangerous in the OR. To the patient, to the staff, and to themselves.

That is when you put on your adult hat and call them on it. Get reinforcements if you have to. Call the manager at home. Call in the nursing supervisor. Whatever you have to do.

My husband once needed emergent gallbladder surgery. On a holiday weekend. On a Sunday on a holiday weekend. I did not care for the on-call surgeon. I didn’t like their technique or their personality or their closing and dressing habits. Staples on everything! Including laparoscopic sites. Um, that’s gonna scar. You bet I called in a favor. I just happened to have the other doctor’s personal phone number in my cell because of answering a page. I called them quickly and had my husband transferred to their service instead.

My husband spent the night in the hospital, on very strong antibiotics, and good pain medicine. He got the best care that I could ensure. It is all in who you know. This is a rare instance.

But, you ask, what about the patients who are not related to someone in the know? How do you deal when they ask point blank if the surgeon is a good surgeon or not?

Tell the truth.

This is where you put your patient advocate hat on. Because sometimes, in an on-call situation, they don’t get to choose. But you can give them numbers of other surgeons, or make a call on their behalf. This is risky and has the potential of getting you reprimanded. But it is the right thing for the patient.

My favorite response that I give to the question is if I would let the surgeon operate on me?

I would let the surgeon in question operate on a family member.