Do nurses complain too much?

January 21, 2007

Scalpel likens nurse complaints to how lawyers consider lawsuits:

Nevertheless, it seems to me that many nurses will complain about each other and about physicians at every opportunity. They will fire off e-mails to their bosses, my bosses, or even the CEO of the hospital about any disagreement or perceived mistreatment, whether or not it affects patient care. Everyone has to walk on eggshells or we will end up at a sensitivity training seminar or get a stern letter of reprimand. Several of our best nurses have been fired for ridiculously petty complaints. Talk too loudly in the nurses’ station, speak a little too bluntly to a patient, make an off color joke or tease an overly sensitive colleague around the wrong nurse and you will get burned. Even those who we think are our friends are just waiting to stab us in the back. It seems to be the below-average nurses who complain the most, but even the superstars have the potential to bite. Nurses seem to consider scathing e-mails about their colleagues the same way that malpractice attorneys consider lawsuits….it’s just part of the job. An occupational hazard. Nothing personal. I find this generally disturbing, but it truly seems to be an ingrained part of the nursing culture.

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Tagged as: hospital, malpractice, patient

{ 6 comments }

1 Anonymous January 21, 2007 at 1:20 pm: The irony of doctors saying ANYONE else complains too much is rich.
2 Anonymous January 21, 2007 at 1:55 pm: This article is referring to professional life … not an anonymous message board dealing with politics and the like. I am not a doctor and I am not a nurse, but I do work at a hospital. The doctors do not complain during work, but the nurses … Wow! It can be really hard to work with SOME nurses because they let their horribly negative attitude get in the way of work. This drags down the work environment.

Now, if you come to an anonymous board that is meant to let off steam and try to judge how people conduct themselves professinally by that … I would say you are a fool.
3 Anonymous January 21, 2007 at 2:10 pm: One observation, of one instance of doctor-nurse interaction.

I was sitting in the recovery room of an outpatient surgery center after a procedure. Just a few feet away, the surgeon who’d just operated on me gave instructions to the recovery room nurse to schedule a follow-up appt. in two weeks.

The nurse replied, to my ears very politely and respectfully, “Should I schedule it with another attending? You’re on vacation that week.”

I was stunned by how the surgeon suddenly lit into her. “No, I want to see him!” he yelled. “If I’m not here that week, then make it in THREE WEEKS!!” Then he stormed off and the nurse, remaining professional throughout, came over to give me the post-op instructions.

If nurses have to put up with that kind of behavior very often, they have a right to complain…at least as far as I’m concerned.
4 Anonymous August 27, 2007 at 1:40 pm: Interesting that a “doctor ” wrote this. Nurses complain a lot, but the frequency seems to be in inverse proportion to the PAY and workload. Anyone subjected to the healthcare industry can find something to complain about. Try being a nurse, you will be amazed at what there is to deal with, even if you are a “doctor”. It is finding someone to address problems that is rare.
5 Anonymous August 27, 2007 at 1:52 pm: I am a nurse and I would like to register a complaint about all that complaining.
6 Anonymous January 7, 2008 at 9:26 pm: Nurses are forced to blunt at times because Doctors beat around the bush and will not tell the patient what is really going on with them.