A doctor who is open minded and courteous can have a beneficial effect not just on the ego of an RT, but can benefit the patient as well. Can you imagine that?
Yet we have one doctor I like to refer to as Dr. Q1 who never seems to listen to me when I make recommendations. She is adamantly opposed to RT Driven Protocols because no RT could know when a therapy is indicated more than a doctor.
When a patient is in respiratory distress I'd obviously take care of the patient first. But there are some patients I think could use a second treatment right now that I don't bother talking to Dr. Q1 about because she'll just say, "No. I ordered them Q1."
Hence the name I chose for her.
So now when I think a patient could use a treatment when Dr. Q1 is on I just go about my business because I'm so tired of being rejected. I feel bad for the patients sometimes that they have to wait an hour to catch their breath because they have a know-it-all doctor. But, that's the way it is sometimes in hospital politics.
Of course then we have most doctors, of whom are open minded to ideas. It's Doctors like this who will "discuss" open mindedly options with their RTs.
Which is why tonight, when I had a patient who wasn't really SOB but just looked like he might benefit from a treatment, I recommended such to the doctor.
The peek flow increased from 450 to 550 after the Ventolin treatment was given even though the patient didn't notice any change in his breathing. Instead of being sent home with only antibiotics to fight the pneumonia, the patient was sent home with a Ventolin inhaler for his bronchospasm.
Ah, the doctor was impressed. The patient benefited. And the RTs ego went up a notch.
You see, there is this thing called team work. We are a team. Yet, when you have a doctor who sits above everyone else, who walks around lopsided because her head is so swelled up with ego, patients suffer as a result.
2 comments:
Those kinds of narrow minded people are everywhere. They make the world suck a little bit more and usually have something to do with all of its problems.
Indeed. I feel very lucky to work in a hospital where the Docs' actually seem to appreciate RT's, allow our recomendations, and most often agree with what we suggest.
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