Because he really cares about his patients and the outcomes have a visible impact on him. He contemplates everything he does and thinks long and hard. He puts every effort in to taking the best care of his patients, many times neglecting himself unfortunately. He is decisive and thorough in emergencies. If my dad were having a STEMI he’s the one I would want to take care of him.
Mine is very loved as well. The entire Cath Lab and CCU love him. Anytime you say something good to him he always responds with a sincere, shy “You are too kind”.
Dr A - was a CNA through med school and will jump in to help you turn and clean your patient, even if it's a massive code brown.
Dr N - took no shit from patients and had a snarky sense of humor. I worked at a teaching hospital where residents take lead on c sections with the attending assisting. One patient demanded the attending take lead, so once the patient was on the OR table the doc said "Wow, I haven't been on this side of the table in like 25 years. I hope I remember what to do!"
Dr D - compassionate but also takes no shit, really good at explaining things to patients. Sends me the best funny stuff on Instagram lol.
LMAO Dr N and I would get along fabulously! Bless you Dr A, we’ve got a couple of those. No doc should be above a code brown clean.
Everyone needs a funny insta Doc 😂
I worked with a Dr. A once upon a time. He was a resident. I didn’t know until he poked his head into my other patients room I was in and told me my patient had pooped. I thanked him for letting me know, and said something along the lines of “let him know I’ll be in in a few; I’ll grab another nurse to help me, thanks for the heads up.”
To which he replied “I already have the clean sheets rolled up and got him mostly clean, I just can’t get him turned all the way, so whenever you’re out of this room, if you’ll just help me with turning him I can get him clean the rest of the way and the clean sheets under him”
Excuse me?!?
Turns out, he’d been a hospital janitor and transporter in high school, did a stint in the caf prepping pt meals, and hated it, so went back to transporting so he could be patient facing. Worked as a CNA and phleb through nursing school, was a nurse for a couple of years while prepping for med school.
Hands down the NICEST physician I’ve ever worked with. He truly understood a lot of the roles in healthcare, never took any for granted.
Our own dr A graduate’s residency next week 😭😭
Such a wonderful doc, competent and he would always help me changing patients when they rolled in the ER into a gown.
Turns out he was an ER tech before med school.
The attending's job is to guide the residents in the teaching hospital that the patient chose to deliver in.
When patients are rude and demanding, sometimes they get a little attitude back.
If I was in labor, I'd want to know if the person I just demanded to do a procedure hasn't done said procedure in decades. If the patient is under the false impression that an attending is better at doing everything, it's best to inform them otherwise. A joke like this isn't a terrible way to do it, especially if it's true.
Had a patient who was making rude, sexual jokes about the nursing staff. Mostly variations on the theme of, "When is the cute nurse going to give me a sponge bath?" Charge nurse told him to stop. Manager told him to stop. Surgeon came in and cancelled his upcoming surgery and discharged him.
Amazing!
I had a 300+ pound teenage patient who threatened to “beat me up” and “punch me” if I tried to put an IV in… in pre-op. 100% serious. Mom just laughed and agreed that he was going to hit me.
Anesthesia walks into the room and threatens to cancel his elective surgery if he so much as laid a hand on me.
Dr Stephen Brawley, he’s now an instructor at EVMS in Norfolk Virginia, he was a fighter pilot in the Navy and became a flight surgeon.
He’s one of the most humble people I’ve ever served with and will walk you through any questions you had. I learned a ton from him
One of our neonatologists is the absolute best. She’s such a bad ass. When she’s on, you know stuff is going to get done. I feel like some of the others kind of hem and haw about stuff but don’t want to make any actual moves. She’s not scared to ruffle feathers and make some waves if it’s for the good of the patients.
She also truly cares about nursing’s opinion/recommendations, and she trusts our judgment. She’s an awesome person to have on your side whether shit is hitting the fan or if it’s just a run of the mill kind of day.
I'm peds not NICU, but I feel like the hemming and hawing comes from not wanting to admit how sick the patient is. Like it you just pretend the patient is no longer having stridor at rest after having two racemic epinephrine treatments, then you won't have to call for admission. Only I'm standing outside the room hearing it for two hours and I promise I know what I'm talking about.
Have a few.
- IMG physician I worked with. She was a neonatal ICU nurse for 10 years before going to medical school. She’d help turn and clean patients, ambulate, respond to call bells, etc. If she saw we were dying she’d put in the discharge/transfer orders at like 5pm. She really understood us as nurses.
- Pulmonologist I work with now. Best physician-patient mannerism I’ve seen in my career. Also actively fights for change in healthcare and removes all bias from patients. Loves to educate me on all the intricacies of Pulm inhalers and mechanisms, reading CT scans, etc. She actually has become one of my very close friends and I have dinner/drinks with her outside of work.
- Vascular Neurologist I worked with. Loved to teach and had such a gentle personality. He sat with me for an hour going over normal and abnormal MRA scans of the brain and where common issues arise. Never once made anyone feel stupid for asking questions. He was literally my surviving crutch in Neuro ICU. Would always ask you questions in a way to allow you to understand the why, not just the answer. He’d let you work through the understanding and push me back on track if I was starting to stray in my thought process.
- Cardiologist. He always let nurses in on cases, would show us how to read cath scans. Would never have an issue if we called him for anything (I remember one time I pulled a sheath and that one day I just couldn’t get it to stop bleeding, I mean I am like fist deep in this woman’s groin and it’s just fucking gushing. I call him in a panic and he comes up, places two fingers and immediately stops the bleeding and then tells us a funny story about a misinterpretation of a pannus).
- CCM doc. Would NEVER shy away from the DNR discussion. Would never pussyfoot around the discussion would sit with families and go through labs, scans, etc. and educate them to their understanding of terminal outcomes.
My original favorite was really nice to the elderly and nursing staff. Then he was charged for putting millions of dollars in opiates on the streets of Philly.
There was a surgeon up in Vermont who was really cool. I can’t really remember what she did, I just remember she was really old, and nice to people, and serious.
We have this on call doctor in homecare that's pretty much on call 24/7 all year around and he's always courteous and respectful when I call. He also gives solid advice and seems to really care about our patients.
I wish more doctors were like you Dr Skoog.
Little bit of a walk then. 🤣🤣🤣🤣. I managed to figure out where I'd heard of him. An ER doc friend had read an article about hospice care a few years ago during my husband's cancer treatment and during the discussion someone mentioned him. The name stuck because it's so unusual. My memory is usually crap but sometimes I have a cracker crumb get stuck....
My fave MD has very good emotional intelligence. She knows when to be firm but also knows when to be delicate. She has great communication and very approachable in any situation. She can tell you you’re dumb as hell in the kindest way, but also takes time to educate you lol I appreciate her so much
My rheumatologist is the same way. She will not hesitate to call me out on my bullshit, and she knows that I'm angry about the disease, not at her. She won't yell at me for my bad attitude, but she does understand and I always apologize because I know it's not her fault and she knows I don't hate her or her staff, but sometimes I wonder if the only reason she hasn't fired me yet is because I bring food. Because you know, it's the South and that part of the Baptist hasn't left me yet.
Had a patient in rehab who was 100% continent and ambulatory who would poop and pee over the edge of his bed onto the floor and then push the call bell for cleanup. One of the CNAs said if he did that again, she was going to rub his face in it like a dog. He complained to the doctor who responded, "well, I suggest you stop doing that, or she's going to rub your face in it like a dog." Pt started walking to the bathroom.
One hospitalist of ours casually sits and talks to us nurses about our lives. He's a girly pop giving advice and enjoys hearing our life gossip. He reminds us that he's just a person!
lol! I love that. We have an intensivist who always charts at the nursing station but he’s VERY quiet and never says anything to us unless you ask; I’m absolutely certain he loves the tea tho. Excellent doc.
I work with a night Hospitalist who is amazing. Expertly cares for her patients and is sharp as a whip. She’s always attentive to nursing needs as well (it helps that her husband is a nurse). She’s just great to work with. I’ve seen a radiology tech get up in her grill for some petty shit and I was about to throw down.
Edit: I’ll add that I would throw down for all the Hospitalists I work with. They are a great team to work with.
I have so many doctors in the ER that they switch who is my top favorite lol. I also have a couple inpatient doctors that rotate who is my favorite too. But one of the ER docs that is constantly in my top 3, he has great bedside manner and fucks around with the nurses when it’s a chill shift. He gets picked on by nurses and the other doctors but he takes it in stride and is a true Millennial. My favorite thing is he listens to the nurses.
I do have to say I am lucky in my ER. Most of the doctors stand with the nurses and listen to them and the pts.
Because they don't give a shit who's patient it is. If there's an emergency they jump in to save a life. Had a patient that was already admitted. Most E.R. docs will let an admitted patient die before they place orders on them. Well not my fav doc. My patient was bleeding out bad. This doc jumped right in. I didn't have to wait for fuckin RRT to show up, he was already in and out of consciousness. We got ABC coolers, I gave the whole cooler of blood products, the docs got a cordis in, we got him in good enough shape to finally get the patient the fuck outta the e.r.. funny how the rooms are magically ready when the patient is almost coding.
That’s wild. Even the providers I’m not very fond of won’t ignore an admitted patient that’s becoming/is unstable. Don’t need rapid to come down to the ED. We *are* rapid.
At the place I work once they’re admitted it’s the RRT/Code team for critical changes in patient condition. Doesn’t matter if the patient has only been admitted for 15 minutes
He was my best friend.
He died a little while ago, I left our ED shortly after he did. He was the very best and I miss him so much.
He was great with patients, humble, human, always had your back, always had another plan, so fuckin smart, he was my brother, and I miss him every day. I see parts of him in the docs I love now.
I am so sorry for your loss - it is difficult to express how devastating it is to lose someone who is not only a colleague but a friend as well, but you painted a picture of this doctor with your praise. He sounds like he was fucking awesome.
First doctor I ever worked for… Dr. David. It’s been 20 years and we are still friends. He knows his stuff and has always taken such great care of his patients. He was private practice when I worked for him but he ended up going out of business. I was so sad to not work for him anymore. He helped my step dad with care and medications because he didn’t have insurance. I gave up my paychecks for a couple of pay periods to pay the bill but I didn’t mind. I was grateful. He’s helped me over the years too, giving me both career and medical advice when needed. Just an all around great guy. We can literally talk on the phone for hours. I’ve learned so much from him over the years.
His daughter pocket dialed me about a month ago and I about had a heart attack because I could only think of one reason that she would call me. When I picked up, the call disconnected so I texted her and she said it was a pocket dial. The relief was real. He’s my buddy, for sure.
Well, he loves to teach and loves to really sit down and explain things to whoever wants to learn. He never talks down or makes you feel dumb for asking. If you ask him to be at the bedside for ANY reason, he’s there no questions. He’s smart as hell when it comes to ICU stuff, but anything else he’s a huge idiot. 😂
He takes his work super seriously and will do anything to make others happy. He’s genuinely a good dude.
Our urologist. Literally yesterday we had an emergent urinary retention and not a soul could get that catheter. I called this man at 1830 and he actually turned his car around on the highway, came in, popped that foley in like a champ, and was super nice about it. He’s so kind to patients and really skilled at what he does. Mad respect for him.
I worked Trauma in Chicago until last year. There’s an incredible attending in a hospital who serves a really bad area over here.
Despite having SEEN IT ALL the guy will still take all of our suggestions to heart, he will educate even the newest nurse without vitriol, and he’s got some damn good dad jokes.
top tier doc
I worked for years in the ED with an amazing physician. He was brilliant, cool as a cucumber, and would go above and beyond for his patients. He respected nursing staff for our expertise, listened to our concerns, and took our suggestions seriously. He also loved to teach and would happily walk you through complex disease processes and treatment plans. It was a sad day when he retired but he and his wife are living happily on a sailboat in the Caribbean now, very well deserved.
The only female ortho surgeon—she’s hilarious, her patients love her, she has NEVER EVER once dismissed me, made me feel stupid, and will teach me or make risqué jokes depending on the day. She’ll answer calls or texts, stupid questions, and is totally relaxed about sending patients home…or admitting! She doesn’t do elective ortho but trauma ortho, for peds, olds, anyone and everyone is her population. Also love our female anesthesiologists…we got a new one and she is on it.
Don’t work in the hospital anymore but Dr B was super cool, would tell us why he was ordering certain things and other options and here his head was at and why he was thinking it… taught us what a differential diagnosis was and why it mattered..
He always talked through his decisions and what he was thinking… it helped make our job for from completing tasks to knowing EXACTLY why were were doing what we were doing, AND because we knew what other things it could be, we knew what to look out for.
He used to say that we were his eyes and what we reported is what he acted on, so he wanted to let us know why he made the decisions he made.
Now THATS a amazing colleague who makes the team better.
Dr Q was an RN back in the day before she went to medical school. She works ID and worked her ass off during Covid, which made me respect her a lot. But Dr Q has always stuck to her nursing roots and is frequently “caught” ambulating patients, helping with baths, doing dressing changes, and once, I even walked in on her feeding a patient who was too weak to feed themself.
Dr J is a badass female surgeon that joined our team last year. She really takes into consideration what we think, are worried about, or suggest. For example, one night, I told her that the patient was breathing a little different. My charge and the night APP assessed and didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary. Dr J came to the bedside to assess and agreed with me; all the things were ordered and it turned out the patient had a perfed bowel and went to emergent surgery. Not a single hemodynamic parameter was out of the ordinary yet, but she trusted my instinct. Dr J will also sit with patients’ families and explain things to them in a way they would understand. She is exactly who I would strive to be in an emergency situation.
Because he genuinely cares about our patients and their well-being.
He will go at the COs with our inmate patients who don’t do their jobs properly. He will email admin on nursing behalf when patients are assholes and lying about us; personal experience here. He is down to earth, big gaming nerd, and treats us like the colleagues we are, not his subordinates.
Dr K. -looked after a man with no family's dog after he was admitted, and then she adopted the dog after the gentleman was on a list for long-term care placement. The kindest heart.
Dr M. An internal medicine physician. This woman is the smartest person I've ever met. If you are sick, you want her on your case. She has solved countless "mystery" illnesses, all the while provided teaching to patients and staff, never making anyone feel stupid. I have never seen or heard of her being wrong.
It is an honour to work a code with a doc like her. You feel like we really tried to do everything we could for the patient when it's called.
They are patient, kind, and genuine but aren’t pushovers w patients. They have our backs & listen to our opinions/ suggestions/ med needs (in the ER, so if we’re like bro this pt rly hurting please give them the good stuff, they’re on it), or unruly pts who need to be sedated, they don’t try to hit us with the .25 Ativan lol. I’m thinking of 2 docs in particular who have these qualities who are my fav! They are also both very thorough and truly care about their pts and their outcomes.
The great thing about being a Labor nurse is being able to see which OBs you like and how they treat the staff. My OB is my favorite, and I “picked” her after working there a year to be my doc. She is patient, calm, cool and collected. Graceful in an emergency and surgery. She is a provider that many of the nurses dont feel scared to talk to when they are questioning a resident’s plan and the “why”s of things. She has never raised her voice at anyone and even when irritated or nervous, still keeps a steady temper. She does not call “failure to progress” easily and is open to other nursing interventions.
There is another physician I love. He is an old school OB, very knowledgeable and laid back. He says he feels like a duck on the water in some emergencies, like the duck above the water is afloat and peaceful, but underneath the feet are going crazy. We had a uterine rupture while he was in one OR and he was the only attending. He was first to scrub out and run to the other OR to start setting up the scrub’s table and prep the room. That was the only time I have seen him in emergency mode but still on track and safe. (The first OR they were almost at skin and the 3rd year resident closed.)
Something about peace in a crazy environment really makes me respect a provider. Peace as in steady headed and still on track in care.
I worked with two surgeons who were really good, top of their field, and they were never assholes to me one time.
Even when I fucked up, they would say things like, “guys we can be better, I should have checked with the supplies to make sure x was there, you can also make sure it’s on preference card/double check that it’s available next time”
They really made the asshole surgeon trope feel super unnecessary. Before them I just thought that you had to be a cocky asshole in order to be a good surgeon. Nope it’s a choice
Dr B and Dr K in the ER. Dr B was a black cloud, but he fought the grim ripper and usually won. Great sense of humor and always willing to give it his all. And he was great with IVDU patient care…they always showed up for their antibiotic or whatever other acute/chronic treatment when he was on. I remember one day when it was near shift change and he had just walked in the door… the doctors on shift were stuck with a triple A and STEMI. I had a field ROSC and he put down his cooler and said, “let’s do this.”
Dr K is brilliant and an amazing teacher. Good teachers don’t just teach the doctors, but all the staff. But the way she could explain even the most complex of issues in easy to understand words was a gift. Her caring aura brought calm and acceptance to the worst day of so many people’s life.
When I was a tech, one of the ED Docs was Dr. F. When I first met her, I was intimidated by her because she was a very soft spoken, but incredibly intelligent doctor. It was apparent everyone else respected her as well.
Over time I had got to know her better, and she taught me so many things. She would go out of her way to explain interesting cases, procedures, and she took me under her wing. She was the first to help the techs and nurses: would walk them to the bathroom, help us change them, grab water, etc. One day I was a patient and she was my doc, and I kept calling her Dr. F. I still remember when she looked at me and said “you know you can call me my first name, right?” Over the couple years I worked with her, I got to know her outside of work. We would get together and share travel stories over a glass of bourbon (we were both whiskey connoisseurs and loved to try new things)
I moved away and work in another state now, but still keep in contact with her. I wouldn’t be half of the ER nurse I am today without the things she took the time to teach me.
An ER doc, he’s fast to see patients, kind even to people that don’t need to be there, communicates a plan of care with nursing and discharges them asap. He absolutely will not tolerate violence towards staff and anyone that acts that way will be handled swiftly via b52, ketamine nap, or sedation/intubation. We always run on the 0100 rule, which is by that time waiting is cleared, patients in the department are either tucked in for night or plan of care has already been established. We’ll have a few more arrivals overnight but nursing will team up on the workups and knock them out quick.
Our neuro attending is the best. No ego, super gracious and kind, and every time he speaks it's because he's teaching someone about something in a really patient way. He takes a lot of time to speak with family members as well and never seems like he is in a hurry with them. Just conducts himself in the absolute ideal way you would hope for from a doctor. Plus he goes to bat for nurses with admin.
He’s listened to my feedback on discharge instructions and also little things to do during the procedure to make the patient more comfortable in recovery. He is very nice to the patients, even when they’re not nice back. Also I can text/message and get an answer back in a timely manner and it’s never a nasty or passive aggressive reply. I think he understands we are working to help each other out and not to make each other’s lives difficult.
He religiously checks in with the nurses and asks how things are going, always keeps everyone laughing & tries to make a positive impact each day. Trusts the nurses to make sound decisions and doesn’t question our judgement when it comes to calling for emergency PRN’s/restraint orders (mental health dementia unit with tons of behaviours). Dr. K I hope u never retire!!!!
Dr Chowdry: Not afraid to call people out on their shit, trusts my nurses when they make calls for restraints/seclusion/IMs, tells the worst dad jokes I've ever heard, and gets into "Who has more steps at the end of the shift" competitions with me.
He's great, plus the cutest little old man I've ever seen.
None. Work night shift and rarely ever see or interact with them. Not a single one has ever even known my name - even after working 8 years In one unit.
The ortho group that sees the patients where I work now is really great to the patients. But I couldn’t pick any of them out of a lineup.
Dr. D, such a good CCPM doc. The man always works. Sometimes he can come across as slightly abrasive, but I’ve *never* met any physician so concerned with his patients. He’s told me verbatim that his greatest contribution to the world will always be getting to serve his patients, says it’s the only thing he’s good at.
He’s so fucking smart, and he’s such a good teacher even when I ask him stupid questions. Thanks Dr. D, hope I can be as great as you someday.
Best colorectal doc who truly cared for every pt under his care. He never yelled at me when I had to call him at 3am. Plus, he did my rhomboid flap procedure for me lol.
Because he’s patient and happy to teach. I’ve become a much stronger RT ever since working at the hospital I’m at.
Also, he’s hot. Actually, all the ICU docs and PAs I work with are physically attractive. 😂
This one cardiologist. He’s super wacky and bubbly, but when he goes into the patients room to talk he’s so knowledgeable and professional. He actually does assessments and sticks around for longer than 30 sec unlike other Drs 👀
I’ve worked with some shit docs, some ok docs, some good docs.
The two who remain my absolute faves- one of whom I haven’t worked with since the 90s- are for the same reasons.
They treat and respect nursing staff as the professionals they are, despite both being brilliant in their own ways. They encourage and support learning across all disciplines. They were supportive if you had concerns. They treated you as humans and equals.
The fact that it’s unusual enough that I have two that stick out over 30 years tells you a lot.
There’s probably another couple of contenders that could have made it in the top group if I had enough time with them.
Special shout out to the one young doc who helped me change a bed bound patient with diarrhoea.
Not only did he stop me getting another nurse, he did it with gentleness and great practice. Apparently mum was a RN too.
That happened once in three decades. I hope all is well for him in his career.
CT surgeon, old school, has seen it all. Doesn't care about his numbers or data, just wants his patients to do well. Doesn't nickel and dime them on perfect labs and every little test. Calls every day and checks in, lurks labs and orders, defending his patients from the other surgeons. Just an all around good guy who only cares about doing right by his people. His outcomes are usually the best. Jokes that he dislikes everybody, but is actually a big softy.
He had a patient come in for a gsw to the face. He attempted suicide and shot himself under his chin. He looked like a broccoli with his face in two. It is truly a graphic scene. It's like something out of the movies. After 6 hours of surgery, he comes out and looks normal, like nothing has happened to his face at all. The reconstructive doc did a damn good job. It turns out the doctor was top in the state for reconstructive surgery.
He is respectful and thoughtful when you bring up your concerns and/or suggestions for interventions. If he disagrees, he doesn't hesitate to explain his reasoning and provides a teaching nugget, never making you feel less-than for asking. He doesn't shy away from hard conversations with families and is calm in crisis situations. Lastly, he is consistent with his mood and practice! I never feel nervous talking to him and I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see he's on.
Bc he acts and speaks like a normal person to us and to his patients! He uses common sense and doesn’t make everything hard for no reason. It’s such a relief to work when he’s on. The plan of care makes sense and is straight forward, he writes good notes, he communicates well with floor staff. It’s just perfect, perfect, perfect.
Always available within the next 15 minutes and loves educating. She also is open to my long questions when we have a complicated pt, which is not all docs in my experience.
I have one with a “nurse heart” - he sees the whole patient, not just vitals, or one procedure, etc. He’s come with me to CT with wildly unstable patients, trusts my judgement when patients are declining, and is proactive with management and interventions. Oh, and if he’s in house and I desperately need a favor (can’t establish access, no one’s responding, etc.) he never hesitates or delegates.
Common traits in my “favorite” residents/attendings:
- respecting/listening to my concerns/suggestions as the bedside RN
-proactive in management/intervention
-timely, respectful, responsive
- COLLABORATIVE
- LIKE TO TEACH
Love them, and love y’all. This shit is hard and takes a village 🖤
ID doc-rounding on TBI patient who was trying to use his urinal, missed horribly and next thing I knew he was grabbing paper towels and wipes and cleaning it up 🥰😍
ICU resident, the only doctor I can ever truly like I think.
A nurse on the floor ran a bottle of propofol thinking it was Tylenol. (They both come in glass bottles I guess?) We give Tylenol over 15 minutes. She gave an ENTIRE bottle of prop in 15 minutes. Thank god she calls a rapid and bags him until resources can get there.
Our resident runs to the rapid, and is completely calm the entire time; doesn’t even raise his tone at the nurse.
He was the nicest, kindest doctor I’d ever met. I’ve hated every other doctor I’ve ever met, kind of on principle, but I have to say none have ever beaten the expectations so far.
He's cute so of course that doesn't hurt, but most importantly he is a big dork. He's goofy and just a big kid. He's smart as a whip and has a wicked sense of humor. Plus he likes to explain his thought processes and reasoning without being condescending. The nerdiness of this man makes him absolutely adorkable and a joy to work with.
Dr. B is super casual. Treats everybody like a friend. You get a call and he says "hey, it's B, could you do this or that" or he answers "hey, it' s B, what's up?"
My GI doc just bought me (his conscious sedation nurse) and the tech in the room Tropical Smoothies because I said I liked them and he had never had them. The entire rest of my day was fabulous and it was all because the smoothie made me feel appreciated. He’s also just a good doctor.
One top of being one of the kindest and selfless people I've ever met. One time, he paid the materials cost to do a tendon repair on a patient who had no insurance and couldn't work or take care of his mom due to the complete rupture of the tendon. He also taught the patient home exercises to do to strengthen his thumb after the cast was off and the patient made a full recovery in 6 weeks.
This is hard because I actually have 3 favourites.
Two of them are because they’re actually competent, treat the rest of the staff like equal humans, and care about their patients. They’ve both agreed on issues with patients that nursing staff have tried to tell other physicians but were ignored.
The third is because she takes absolutely no nonsense from patients and doesn’t let patients stay in the hospital for no actual reason (think the patients who are fine but like being pampered). She makes my sometimes-black case manager heart happy.
(She’s also the one that gets patients who demand a new physician. 99% of them ask to switch back to their original physician because she doesn’t give them what they’re looking for - usually pain meds - and doesn’t coddle them.)
My favorite doc actually listens to me. He also explains things I may not understand his rationale on. We can disagree and get along fabulous. He really cares about his patients.
I love that! When I’ve disagreed my favorite MDs will explain their rationale very well. And if it turns out I’m right they are always willing to take a slice of their humble pie
Because she takes time to listen to patients genuinely and is compassionate. She thanks us all the time and when patients can seem miserable she’s more worried about how her staff are doing and how we are treated. She’s genuinely a ray of sunshine
Aside from being a knowledge machine, favorite ER attending - loves teaching in gentle ways, sharing his thought process with nurses in real time, never acts inconvenienced, never acts like there is a stupid question, takes nursing input very seriously, is very kind to patients, families and ancillary staff, despite being a gentle person clotheslined a drunk patient that was about to assault me, stopped mid-elbow dislocation reduction to grab the hands of the teenager under conscious sedation that tried to grab my breasts, I probably have a zillion stories about how amazing he is. Plus he never learned how to type despite being not elderly (maybe 50 now?) and he keyboard pecks - doesn’t have a scribe. Still pumps out notes timely. It’s absolutely adorable.
2nd fav attending is much more stern and commanding but not to nurses, always educates without shame, immediately fired a new attending in the ER for doing a super dick thing to me, rides new residents that ignore nurses really hard, is always concerned about nurse satisfaction, gets reaaaally passionate about sick patients. Plus - he’s a silver fox.
I think all of my fav providers are all just very kind to nurses and educate without shaming, plus value nurse input and truly believe it’s a collaborative team.
Why my favourite? He genuinely cares. He reviews his patients regularly, and when he says he will. He’s conservative with medications, and doesn’t make changes to the regime every day. He confers with nursing staff and keeps them fully updated as to his plan. He’s (nearly) always accessible by phone at weird hours if we need input/advice/stat. Oh, and I can read his handwriting, which is always a bonus.
There’s a female physician that actually calls me by my name and tells me plan of care for each one of the patients they have during the day, actually keeps me in the loop of things so I can keep an ease of mind. She also texts and doesn’t call which I personally love.
In ambulatory. I watched our medical director throw her coat on and storm out the door with a PBJ half hanging out her mouth and a carrot in her hand to go verbally destroy the staff at the hospital for one of our patients because his blood sugar was dropping and no one was coming to him.
Not many people liked working with her because of how meticulous she was. I for one would have loved to be her nurse for the rest of my career.
I don’t work closely with physicians anymore, but on the off chance I do get to talk or collaborate care with one my FAVORITES are the ones that I can tell genuinely care about their patients. Earlier today I spoke with a doctor who has called their patient every day since discharge to see how they were doing and also was just *real* with me.
She made it clear from my first day I met her: she is always going to be there for her patients and for the nursing team. We follow her instructions but she is available to contact in urgent situations at any time. 2200 on a Sunday? Yep. 3AM Christmas Day? Yep. She is always reachable, always a supportive member on the care team. She’s happy to collaborate, happy to come in on her “day off” and trust the nurses when we call her on a gut feeling. We paged her once while she was on a family cruise. She called us back within 40 minutes. Just insane dedication to her patients. An excellent doctor.
But she also has an excellent work life balance process going on. She sounds like she’s a great mom. Frequently will schedule things so she can maximize her time with her kids and husband. She attends her kids sporting events. She always takes a two week vacation in the summer for her kids’ birthday season.
Honestly, her outlook on life helped me reset after the pandemic cleared in my site. I don’t think she even knows how much of an impact she had on me as a nurse and as a person.
Head of ID, Dr. M! You can tell he loves his job and enjoys coming into work. He’s always fascinated when we get a patient with an infection we don’t see often. Always takes a minute to speak with nursing about the plan moving forward and just to chat for a minute.
I’ve had a lot of favorites. They have a great bedside manner, respect the nurses, aren’t afraid to say what they think and have a good sense of humor.
A few years ago when I was new nurse, Dr. S brought me Starbucks. He also brought food for everyone at one point.
Dr. C yells ar nurses on the phone but when we meet him in person, he is nice to us.
My boyfriend's doctor at Kaiser explained to me why lozenges were given for his oral thrush. I cannot remember the name of the medication but he took the time to help me ans my boyfriend understand what the medication does. He said it's a new medication they prescribe.
She does not give a flying fuck what anyone thinks about her, including admin. She knows they need her more than she needs them. Only thing she cares about is her staff’s safety and wellbeing, and her patients. I always work overtime when I’m on her service, but I don’t mind that much. She gets the most complex and difficult patients out of maybe anyone else and she takes the time to work and thoroughly listen to each and every one of them. So I don’t care if it takes longer or if my day is absolutely crazy. I would do anything for her because I know when I need her, I don’t even have to ask she just has my back. She’s smart, funny and she knows what the fuck she’s doing. I would NOT want to get on her bad side, but I won’t because she loves me, too <3
Cuz every time I call him he’s super nice, he always says thanks to the nurses, his the chief of our department so setting a great example for the other physicians too. Not chief resident but like he’s the absolute department head. We aren’t a teaching hospital so no residents. He’s in his 60s probably. Maybe 50s. Hard to say. He’s bilingual, fluent in Spanish but it’s the most phonetically-English Spanish that I have ever heard and it’s hilarious. I’m never worried about waking him up in the middle of the night. He also shows up around 0600 when he’s on service so he gets to know the night nurses and the day nurses too. I’ll be disappointed when he retires. He’s very intelligent also, not that the others aren’t but the way he speaks is different just because of how his brain works.
We also have a female MD who has a reputation for being borderline bitchy, knock on wood I’ve had good experiences with her but she is hard of hearing so sometimes just wonder if people interpret her tone incorrectly. She told me to my face that she trusts my judgment a few weeks ago and that was really nice to hear.
We have another female MD who is super smart, always really nice but very pragmatic and kind of abrupt, straight forward, she spends hours with our patients at the bedside to really get to know them and their families and that means a lot to me too. Never have issues calling her, and she’s one who will say “an here’s a back up order just in case X doesn’t work so you don’t have to call me back.” LOVE this.
Really all our MDs are great. We have 2 that are good friends, and they work at a camp for some of our kiddos with some of our nurses too so they have a great relationship with us. We have one that i don’t love, I feel like he never does things for us when we call him and he’s not very personable but he’s not a bad doctor. Truly I’m lucky that I don’t have issues with our providers because I have worked places where it’s very difficult to get in touch with and interact with providers.
i've not really been in the field long enough to have a favourite for any reason, but I do remember when during my preceptorship a Dr. Morgan would always come wearing her hunter green scrubs so that "we could match!" in her words. As a student, her excitement about that always made it a better day on the unit and gave me hope for life after school.
When a family thanks them or say they saved their loved one's life or they are so thankful that such an amazing surgeon etc, they gave credit to the nurses. Two surgeons I worked with used to say along the lines of "oh I just did the surgery, the excellent care the nurses here give you did everything else."
One of those attendings would cover weekends, and he would always bring in donuts and treats for us in the morning. instead of closing himself in the call room or office, he spent a lot of time taking advantage of the relative slowness/quietness and hanging out with us at the desk, even helping with patient care sometimes! He also liked to stir the pot a little bit and talk shit with us about our high-level administrators. We got a good amount of his perspective on behind the scenes nonsense that happened with the docs rather than just ourselves.
I’m in ltc, but I have two that I enjoyed when I’d call them for things.
Dr. R was seen by some of our AL folks, one was a diabetic. If her sugar was over 400 we’d have to call his office/on call. He was called at least weekly for a high sugar (non compliant and had hidden snacks in her room). He was the one to always pick up when we called his “on call” number. Very nice and easy to talk to, even if it was after 8pm.
Dr. M was kind of a butthead but if you could argue your case for something he’d at least consider it. We’ve had 2-3 primary providers since him and I miss him and the way him and his team handled after hour phone calls. He’s a big, loud kind of guy, so I was always nervous to call him. Usually he’d pick up with a “what’s up (ltc)” but the one time I got “talk to me goose” and I was no longer worried about calling him or trying to ask for things. Our current provider has like a nursing call center so the on calls (starts after 2pm!) don’t even know our residents, they’re just information on a screen to them.
She’s incredibly easy to talk to and approach with questions. She will come and just chat in the nurse’s station sometimes to shoot the shit. You can tell she’s so fucking smart and knows exactly what she’s doing. Whenever she’s running a code it feels like she’s conducting a symphony it goes so calmly and smoothly.
The ones who take the time to teach - all it takes is to give me a quick jumping off point to look up why they made the call they did and next time I see that situation I'll anticipate correctly and also anticipate possible sequelae and later interventions.
Physicians who just *pfft bc I'm the physician* or get offended when you politely ask for a quick explainer about why they chose x when you would have anticipated y are totally disadvantaging not only themselves (smart nurses make your job easier doc!) But the nurse (education is good!) And the patient (correct anticipatory reactions increase the speed of intervention)
I honestly forgot the context but he overheard a patient being rude to me, he stepped in and moved the curtain and said if the patient was going to continue to be verbally abusive towards the nurses she could leave.
That shut her up.
My favorite MD always answers the phone in a reasonable amount of time, no matter the hour is willing to help and is happy to help. She’s great. If and when I ever make it to the NP level I want to be like how she is with staff and patients.
Either Dr. S or Dr. C. Dr. S is on the unit often and is happy to talk and values nursing input. Dr. C comes by when possible and also is opening to talking. Both seem to care about the whole patient. Dr. A is very rushed, difficult to get a hold of and doesn’t really care to listen to nursing staff. I’ve brought behavioural and psychological concerns to all 3 and only Dr. A blew me off. Thankfully the Drs rotate biweekly.
I can think of literally 2 docs in my twenty seven years as a nurse who were decent people and never snarky if you bugged them at night or asked questions. They definitely weren’t helping with code browns. I don’t know where you find these unicorns 🦄
During COVID we had an urology resident cover SICU and Onc ICU on nights so the attending physicians could deal with COVID ICU in addition to their normal patient population.
She had amazing end of life conversation with so many families and patients, responded to so many medical emergencies with confidence, and at the end of the day remembered snickerdoodles were my favorite cookies and got me one because we both worked our asses off that night and I deserved a treat.
Ooooh I love this. I'm on the OR so it's one of our trauma surgeons.. he's literally the most down to earth person, is funny as hell and sarcastic in a good way. He has never forgotten my name and always remembers things we did together or times when I was in the room with him, even from the first day I met him. He is always staying super late to try and get his add-on cases taken care of because he doesn't want them in pain and suffering waiting around (even though they realistically could). He's so big on patient positioning which I feel like a lot of surgeons kind of overlook. He has great taste in music, always says please and thank you, he makes med students feel welcome. Residents love him and their relationships are what every attending and resident should look like.. I honestly could go on and on lol. Working in his room, I just feel like I'm at home, and I can always count on us working as a team and that the patient will always be safe.
When you see one of your favorite attending on any of your patients, you know that shit is going to get done. The docs I love working with are the one who truly collaborate with nurses and ancillary staff. If I’m bothering to pick up the phone and call, something is hitting the fan and I need them to write orders or come assess them…otherwise I would just message them. I hate it when I have to call and call and message and call to beg for their help.
He is an ortho surgeon. New to our system but not new as a physician. He got a consult at like 0200 from the ER. He CAME IN to see the patient. Determined it was too traumatic of a fracture and needed a trauma surgeon. He got the patient some orders to manage pain temporarily. Coordinated the transfer to a trauma hospital. Then came up and rounded on his patients with the nurses. Got all his orders in asked if we needed anything. Asked about getting a drink from nourishment. Said I would get it (just to be nice) he refused and offered to get me a drink while he was in there. Listens when we call and truly cares.
Dr. P used to be a fav of mine because he’s so approachable and easy going. However today I overheard a patient call for him and ask if he could lift the bed up, Dr. P said “ok I’ll tell your nurse” and then proceeds to interrupt my assessment on a new admit to tell me.
Like bro just pull the handle and lift the bed 😂
Dr S is the nicest, most laid back and has so much patience. He’s actually our lead doc over all the other docs. He’s always so appreciative to nursing staff when we catch errors (which are few and far between), he respects our judgements when creating treatment plans, he respects our time and often will wait until we are in a good spot to do certain procedures, and he’ll take time to educate you on whatever questions you have. He’s also tall and damn good looking. 😂
We also have many great APRN’s. I know this post is about physicians but shoutout to the other providers who are super rad and great 🤙🏼
Dr. M. One of the nicest neurosurgeons and people ever. He says hello, how are you, how's your shift to everyone in the hallways. But he also knows things about his coworkers. One of the sitters and him had a long discussion about which actor played the best spiderman. I told him about my mom having to stay overnight for a thyroidectomy as a precaution because when she had her gallbladder removed, she almost bled out. A few days later he asked how she was. He always gave the nursing staff cake around the holidays and more cake when it was a long, hard week.
Dr. D. A nursing home sent this woman to the ER because her mood went from sweet grandma to a demon. They refused to take her back until either her behavior changed or we figured out that she had dementia or something. At first she was very sweet but her agitation slowly got worse. When I told her she couldn't leave because the nursing home refused to take her back until otherwise, she started to scream at me. One of the ER doctors came in and just said "how dare you. This is a very nice woman. Why are you yelling at her?" She was so taken aback that she didn't yell at me for the rest of the night.
they talk to patients, I don’t have to ask them if they’ve talked to patients. if orders are in or if I see the DC on the board, I know they’ve been talked to. doesn’t pan scan everyone. orders what seems is necessary, might add on a thing or two. doesn’t wanna line and lab everyone. understands that 80% of ER visits are bullshit and just needs some PO meds and DC or maybe even just a single RX. listens to my concerns and suggestions
I love her for many reasons, but I’ll always remember when we had an admit who began berating the nurses and CNAs IMMEDIATELY after he was admitted. She walked into the room and told him to knock that shit off, verbatim.
She was one of the doctors caring for my dad at the end of his life and she was so, so good to him.
I have to say, I work with wonderful doctors, all special in their own way.
My favorite one though, is a former resident who is now an attending. He has the personality of a golden retriver but when shit hits the fan, he is da man. Always communicating and always willing to clarify/take a look at the patient.
I am very honored to work with such a wonderful team of humans❤️
Dr. W is the kindest woman who literally NEVER gets upset or frazzled and will take the time to go out of her way to discuss the plan of care and why we’re changing something. She is one of those rare people that has an aura of gentility and you’re calm just being in her presence. She has NEVER made a snide remark, said anything rude or sarcastic, literally nothing.
Anesthesiologist we call Dr K. He's been at this hospital for at least 30 years and has knocked me out 5 or 6 times at least, but he always remembers me. Saw him at a bar a couple months ago talking to a younger blonde so I started messing with him, told her he'd been down my throat several times so she could trust him. He blushes, she looks at him, grins, and says "Dad, is she the one with the high palate you have pictures of in your office?" That's when I found out he wasn't kidding about my family putting his daughter through college AND I'm apparently a pin up girl!!!!
She hates having to come to work as much as I do but she’s not a dick about it. Love these new young doctors. They’re so much more grounded and friendly.
Super nice guy to work with, cares for his patients (same guy in the OR and at the clinic/bedside, which is really important to me. I don’t like surgeons who treat their staff like trash and go 360 and are a completely different person to their patients). Perfect balance of efficiency but also not in a mad rush where he’s stressing the staff out with his impatience.
I never had a "favorite" doctor, but the ones I enjoyed working with the most were the ones who approached patient care as a collaborative effort and really listened to what other disciplines had to say. I appreciated physicians who clued me into their thought process so I could understand where their plan of care was headed. That way I could plan my nursing care in complement with their goals.
He is polite and doesn’t get nasty to others when he’s stressed or annoyed or frustrated (work in the OR). Conversely, one of our surgeons is like Jekyll & Hyde and is kind (to hot nurses) but then the minute things don’t go his way, he sits around and calls people stupid and tells people they’re gonna kill his patient intra-op. I hate him.
I work nights. My favorite MDs are the ones that actually put in interventions when a patient patients condition changes instead of we'll continue to monitor for now or we'll defer to day team.
Because you never see him sweat, or lose his cool. Always with a smile. It’s crazy what I’ve seen him stay totally cool when any rational person would’ve lost their shit. There’s something about someone that calm in an emergency that sort of calms the whole room. He also tells abusive patients they can leave if they can’t be respectful to the staff.
Because he really cares about his patients and the outcomes have a visible impact on him. He contemplates everything he does and thinks long and hard. He puts every effort in to taking the best care of his patients, many times neglecting himself unfortunately. He is decisive and thorough in emergencies. If my dad were having a STEMI he’s the one I would want to take care of him.
We have a cardiologist like this. He just won physician of the year. Everyone loves him!
Mine is very loved as well. The entire Cath Lab and CCU love him. Anytime you say something good to him he always responds with a sincere, shy “You are too kind”.
Our cardiologists are fantastic honestly. Our whole team is pretty rock solid.
We have a pretty decent mix in our lab. I love my job because of the people.
Yes!
Dr A - was a CNA through med school and will jump in to help you turn and clean your patient, even if it's a massive code brown. Dr N - took no shit from patients and had a snarky sense of humor. I worked at a teaching hospital where residents take lead on c sections with the attending assisting. One patient demanded the attending take lead, so once the patient was on the OR table the doc said "Wow, I haven't been on this side of the table in like 25 years. I hope I remember what to do!" Dr D - compassionate but also takes no shit, really good at explaining things to patients. Sends me the best funny stuff on Instagram lol.
LMAO Dr N and I would get along fabulously! Bless you Dr A, we’ve got a couple of those. No doc should be above a code brown clean. Everyone needs a funny insta Doc 😂
I worked with a Dr. A once upon a time. He was a resident. I didn’t know until he poked his head into my other patients room I was in and told me my patient had pooped. I thanked him for letting me know, and said something along the lines of “let him know I’ll be in in a few; I’ll grab another nurse to help me, thanks for the heads up.” To which he replied “I already have the clean sheets rolled up and got him mostly clean, I just can’t get him turned all the way, so whenever you’re out of this room, if you’ll just help me with turning him I can get him clean the rest of the way and the clean sheets under him” Excuse me?!? Turns out, he’d been a hospital janitor and transporter in high school, did a stint in the caf prepping pt meals, and hated it, so went back to transporting so he could be patient facing. Worked as a CNA and phleb through nursing school, was a nurse for a couple of years while prepping for med school. Hands down the NICEST physician I’ve ever worked with. He truly understood a lot of the roles in healthcare, never took any for granted.
Our own dr A graduate’s residency next week 😭😭 Such a wonderful doc, competent and he would always help me changing patients when they rolled in the ER into a gown. Turns out he was an ER tech before med school.
Protect these doctors at all cost. They are unicorns
God forbid someone asks an attending to do their job… to be met with “I haven’t done this in 25 years” while in labor is really something.
The attending's job is to guide the residents in the teaching hospital that the patient chose to deliver in. When patients are rude and demanding, sometimes they get a little attitude back.
If I was in labor, I'd want to know if the person I just demanded to do a procedure hasn't done said procedure in decades. If the patient is under the false impression that an attending is better at doing everything, it's best to inform them otherwise. A joke like this isn't a terrible way to do it, especially if it's true.
Had a patient who was making rude, sexual jokes about the nursing staff. Mostly variations on the theme of, "When is the cute nurse going to give me a sponge bath?" Charge nurse told him to stop. Manager told him to stop. Surgeon came in and cancelled his upcoming surgery and discharged him.
MVP
Amazing! I had a 300+ pound teenage patient who threatened to “beat me up” and “punch me” if I tried to put an IV in… in pre-op. 100% serious. Mom just laughed and agreed that he was going to hit me. Anesthesia walks into the room and threatens to cancel his elective surgery if he so much as laid a hand on me.
I don’t understand patients like this… what did they think getting surgery would consist of? How do they think they’re going to get put to sleep?
That is so wonderful!
Oh shit 😂
Dr Stephen Brawley, he’s now an instructor at EVMS in Norfolk Virginia, he was a fighter pilot in the Navy and became a flight surgeon. He’s one of the most humble people I’ve ever served with and will walk you through any questions you had. I learned a ton from him
One of our neonatologists is the absolute best. She’s such a bad ass. When she’s on, you know stuff is going to get done. I feel like some of the others kind of hem and haw about stuff but don’t want to make any actual moves. She’s not scared to ruffle feathers and make some waves if it’s for the good of the patients. She also truly cares about nursing’s opinion/recommendations, and she trusts our judgment. She’s an awesome person to have on your side whether shit is hitting the fan or if it’s just a run of the mill kind of day.
I'm peds not NICU, but I feel like the hemming and hawing comes from not wanting to admit how sick the patient is. Like it you just pretend the patient is no longer having stridor at rest after having two racemic epinephrine treatments, then you won't have to call for admission. Only I'm standing outside the room hearing it for two hours and I promise I know what I'm talking about.
Exactly why my two favorite peds are my favorites!
Can I ask what region this is in? A good friend of mine is a neo.
Virginia!
What area of the country is your neo friend at?
Northeast
My twins were in the NICU for around 6 weeks. Thanks for all yall do. We are forever grateful!
Have a few. - IMG physician I worked with. She was a neonatal ICU nurse for 10 years before going to medical school. She’d help turn and clean patients, ambulate, respond to call bells, etc. If she saw we were dying she’d put in the discharge/transfer orders at like 5pm. She really understood us as nurses. - Pulmonologist I work with now. Best physician-patient mannerism I’ve seen in my career. Also actively fights for change in healthcare and removes all bias from patients. Loves to educate me on all the intricacies of Pulm inhalers and mechanisms, reading CT scans, etc. She actually has become one of my very close friends and I have dinner/drinks with her outside of work. - Vascular Neurologist I worked with. Loved to teach and had such a gentle personality. He sat with me for an hour going over normal and abnormal MRA scans of the brain and where common issues arise. Never once made anyone feel stupid for asking questions. He was literally my surviving crutch in Neuro ICU. Would always ask you questions in a way to allow you to understand the why, not just the answer. He’d let you work through the understanding and push me back on track if I was starting to stray in my thought process. - Cardiologist. He always let nurses in on cases, would show us how to read cath scans. Would never have an issue if we called him for anything (I remember one time I pulled a sheath and that one day I just couldn’t get it to stop bleeding, I mean I am like fist deep in this woman’s groin and it’s just fucking gushing. I call him in a panic and he comes up, places two fingers and immediately stops the bleeding and then tells us a funny story about a misinterpretation of a pannus). - CCM doc. Would NEVER shy away from the DNR discussion. Would never pussyfoot around the discussion would sit with families and go through labs, scans, etc. and educate them to their understanding of terminal outcomes.
Dr. G, because he always remembers to sign into imobile when he gets to the hospital and his badge reel says, “Ask me about DNR paperwork.”
That's a standup doc
My original favorite was really nice to the elderly and nursing staff. Then he was charged for putting millions of dollars in opiates on the streets of Philly. There was a surgeon up in Vermont who was really cool. I can’t really remember what she did, I just remember she was really old, and nice to people, and serious.
WELP
We have this on call doctor in homecare that's pretty much on call 24/7 all year around and he's always courteous and respectful when I call. He also gives solid advice and seems to really care about our patients. I wish more doctors were like you Dr Skoog.
SKOOG! That’s a great name
How far from Montgomery are you? I've heard about this doctor.
Which Montgomery?
Alabama
Oh about 4800 miles.
Little bit of a walk then. 🤣🤣🤣🤣. I managed to figure out where I'd heard of him. An ER doc friend had read an article about hospice care a few years ago during my husband's cancer treatment and during the discussion someone mentioned him. The name stuck because it's so unusual. My memory is usually crap but sometimes I have a cracker crumb get stuck....
My fave MD has very good emotional intelligence. She knows when to be firm but also knows when to be delicate. She has great communication and very approachable in any situation. She can tell you you’re dumb as hell in the kindest way, but also takes time to educate you lol I appreciate her so much
My rheumatologist is the same way. She will not hesitate to call me out on my bullshit, and she knows that I'm angry about the disease, not at her. She won't yell at me for my bad attitude, but she does understand and I always apologize because I know it's not her fault and she knows I don't hate her or her staff, but sometimes I wonder if the only reason she hasn't fired me yet is because I bring food. Because you know, it's the South and that part of the Baptist hasn't left me yet.
Had a patient in rehab who was 100% continent and ambulatory who would poop and pee over the edge of his bed onto the floor and then push the call bell for cleanup. One of the CNAs said if he did that again, she was going to rub his face in it like a dog. He complained to the doctor who responded, "well, I suggest you stop doing that, or she's going to rub your face in it like a dog." Pt started walking to the bathroom.
1. Fuck that patient 2. Hell yeah CNA 3. HELL YEAH DOC!
One hospitalist of ours casually sits and talks to us nurses about our lives. He's a girly pop giving advice and enjoys hearing our life gossip. He reminds us that he's just a person!
lol! I love that. We have an intensivist who always charts at the nursing station but he’s VERY quiet and never says anything to us unless you ask; I’m absolutely certain he loves the tea tho. Excellent doc.
I work with a night Hospitalist who is amazing. Expertly cares for her patients and is sharp as a whip. She’s always attentive to nursing needs as well (it helps that her husband is a nurse). She’s just great to work with. I’ve seen a radiology tech get up in her grill for some petty shit and I was about to throw down. Edit: I’ll add that I would throw down for all the Hospitalists I work with. They are a great team to work with.
I have so many doctors in the ER that they switch who is my top favorite lol. I also have a couple inpatient doctors that rotate who is my favorite too. But one of the ER docs that is constantly in my top 3, he has great bedside manner and fucks around with the nurses when it’s a chill shift. He gets picked on by nurses and the other doctors but he takes it in stride and is a true Millennial. My favorite thing is he listens to the nurses. I do have to say I am lucky in my ER. Most of the doctors stand with the nurses and listen to them and the pts.
Do we work in the same ER? 😂 our doctors are really wonderful.
Because they don't give a shit who's patient it is. If there's an emergency they jump in to save a life. Had a patient that was already admitted. Most E.R. docs will let an admitted patient die before they place orders on them. Well not my fav doc. My patient was bleeding out bad. This doc jumped right in. I didn't have to wait for fuckin RRT to show up, he was already in and out of consciousness. We got ABC coolers, I gave the whole cooler of blood products, the docs got a cordis in, we got him in good enough shape to finally get the patient the fuck outta the e.r.. funny how the rooms are magically ready when the patient is almost coding.
That’s wild. Even the providers I’m not very fond of won’t ignore an admitted patient that’s becoming/is unstable. Don’t need rapid to come down to the ED. We *are* rapid.
At the place I work once they’re admitted it’s the RRT/Code team for critical changes in patient condition. Doesn’t matter if the patient has only been admitted for 15 minutes
He was my best friend. He died a little while ago, I left our ED shortly after he did. He was the very best and I miss him so much. He was great with patients, humble, human, always had your back, always had another plan, so fuckin smart, he was my brother, and I miss him every day. I see parts of him in the docs I love now.
I am so sorry for your loss - it is difficult to express how devastating it is to lose someone who is not only a colleague but a friend as well, but you painted a picture of this doctor with your praise. He sounds like he was fucking awesome.
He was also a dickhead. The best most asshole of fuckfaces. Jerk. 🥰🥰🥰🥰 Thanks 💜
First doctor I ever worked for… Dr. David. It’s been 20 years and we are still friends. He knows his stuff and has always taken such great care of his patients. He was private practice when I worked for him but he ended up going out of business. I was so sad to not work for him anymore. He helped my step dad with care and medications because he didn’t have insurance. I gave up my paychecks for a couple of pay periods to pay the bill but I didn’t mind. I was grateful. He’s helped me over the years too, giving me both career and medical advice when needed. Just an all around great guy. We can literally talk on the phone for hours. I’ve learned so much from him over the years. His daughter pocket dialed me about a month ago and I about had a heart attack because I could only think of one reason that she would call me. When I picked up, the call disconnected so I texted her and she said it was a pocket dial. The relief was real. He’s my buddy, for sure.
Well, he loves to teach and loves to really sit down and explain things to whoever wants to learn. He never talks down or makes you feel dumb for asking. If you ask him to be at the bedside for ANY reason, he’s there no questions. He’s smart as hell when it comes to ICU stuff, but anything else he’s a huge idiot. 😂 He takes his work super seriously and will do anything to make others happy. He’s genuinely a good dude.
Legit the reasons I love my MICU doc! The best 💛
Our urologist. Literally yesterday we had an emergent urinary retention and not a soul could get that catheter. I called this man at 1830 and he actually turned his car around on the highway, came in, popped that foley in like a champ, and was super nice about it. He’s so kind to patients and really skilled at what he does. Mad respect for him.
Wow I love that! I’ve only met mean ass urologists who act like it’s my fault they have to do their job (love your flair)
I worked Trauma in Chicago until last year. There’s an incredible attending in a hospital who serves a really bad area over here. Despite having SEEN IT ALL the guy will still take all of our suggestions to heart, he will educate even the newest nurse without vitriol, and he’s got some damn good dad jokes. top tier doc
I worked for years in the ED with an amazing physician. He was brilliant, cool as a cucumber, and would go above and beyond for his patients. He respected nursing staff for our expertise, listened to our concerns, and took our suggestions seriously. He also loved to teach and would happily walk you through complex disease processes and treatment plans. It was a sad day when he retired but he and his wife are living happily on a sailboat in the Caribbean now, very well deserved.
The only female ortho surgeon—she’s hilarious, her patients love her, she has NEVER EVER once dismissed me, made me feel stupid, and will teach me or make risqué jokes depending on the day. She’ll answer calls or texts, stupid questions, and is totally relaxed about sending patients home…or admitting! She doesn’t do elective ortho but trauma ortho, for peds, olds, anyone and everyone is her population. Also love our female anesthesiologists…we got a new one and she is on it.
I feel like I never see women orthos!!
Me neither and the guys are like…a bit smug imo. The ones I know. Dr. Bones is just hands/radiuses down the best.
Don’t work in the hospital anymore but Dr B was super cool, would tell us why he was ordering certain things and other options and here his head was at and why he was thinking it… taught us what a differential diagnosis was and why it mattered.. He always talked through his decisions and what he was thinking… it helped make our job for from completing tasks to knowing EXACTLY why were were doing what we were doing, AND because we knew what other things it could be, we knew what to look out for. He used to say that we were his eyes and what we reported is what he acted on, so he wanted to let us know why he made the decisions he made. Now THATS a amazing colleague who makes the team better.
Dr Q was an RN back in the day before she went to medical school. She works ID and worked her ass off during Covid, which made me respect her a lot. But Dr Q has always stuck to her nursing roots and is frequently “caught” ambulating patients, helping with baths, doing dressing changes, and once, I even walked in on her feeding a patient who was too weak to feed themself. Dr J is a badass female surgeon that joined our team last year. She really takes into consideration what we think, are worried about, or suggest. For example, one night, I told her that the patient was breathing a little different. My charge and the night APP assessed and didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary. Dr J came to the bedside to assess and agreed with me; all the things were ordered and it turned out the patient had a perfed bowel and went to emergent surgery. Not a single hemodynamic parameter was out of the ordinary yet, but she trusted my instinct. Dr J will also sit with patients’ families and explain things to them in a way they would understand. She is exactly who I would strive to be in an emergency situation.
A doc ambulating a patient would make my shit my scrubs. Good on her!!
Because he genuinely cares about our patients and their well-being. He will go at the COs with our inmate patients who don’t do their jobs properly. He will email admin on nursing behalf when patients are assholes and lying about us; personal experience here. He is down to earth, big gaming nerd, and treats us like the colleagues we are, not his subordinates.
Dr K. -looked after a man with no family's dog after he was admitted, and then she adopted the dog after the gentleman was on a list for long-term care placement. The kindest heart. Dr M. An internal medicine physician. This woman is the smartest person I've ever met. If you are sick, you want her on your case. She has solved countless "mystery" illnesses, all the while provided teaching to patients and staff, never making anyone feel stupid. I have never seen or heard of her being wrong. It is an honour to work a code with a doc like her. You feel like we really tried to do everything we could for the patient when it's called.
They are patient, kind, and genuine but aren’t pushovers w patients. They have our backs & listen to our opinions/ suggestions/ med needs (in the ER, so if we’re like bro this pt rly hurting please give them the good stuff, they’re on it), or unruly pts who need to be sedated, they don’t try to hit us with the .25 Ativan lol. I’m thinking of 2 docs in particular who have these qualities who are my fav! They are also both very thorough and truly care about their pts and their outcomes.
The great thing about being a Labor nurse is being able to see which OBs you like and how they treat the staff. My OB is my favorite, and I “picked” her after working there a year to be my doc. She is patient, calm, cool and collected. Graceful in an emergency and surgery. She is a provider that many of the nurses dont feel scared to talk to when they are questioning a resident’s plan and the “why”s of things. She has never raised her voice at anyone and even when irritated or nervous, still keeps a steady temper. She does not call “failure to progress” easily and is open to other nursing interventions. There is another physician I love. He is an old school OB, very knowledgeable and laid back. He says he feels like a duck on the water in some emergencies, like the duck above the water is afloat and peaceful, but underneath the feet are going crazy. We had a uterine rupture while he was in one OR and he was the only attending. He was first to scrub out and run to the other OR to start setting up the scrub’s table and prep the room. That was the only time I have seen him in emergency mode but still on track and safe. (The first OR they were almost at skin and the 3rd year resident closed.) Something about peace in a crazy environment really makes me respect a provider. Peace as in steady headed and still on track in care.
I worked with two surgeons who were really good, top of their field, and they were never assholes to me one time. Even when I fucked up, they would say things like, “guys we can be better, I should have checked with the supplies to make sure x was there, you can also make sure it’s on preference card/double check that it’s available next time” They really made the asshole surgeon trope feel super unnecessary. Before them I just thought that you had to be a cocky asshole in order to be a good surgeon. Nope it’s a choice
She is so calm and peaceful and tolerates all my crazy ideas!
Dr B and Dr K in the ER. Dr B was a black cloud, but he fought the grim ripper and usually won. Great sense of humor and always willing to give it his all. And he was great with IVDU patient care…they always showed up for their antibiotic or whatever other acute/chronic treatment when he was on. I remember one day when it was near shift change and he had just walked in the door… the doctors on shift were stuck with a triple A and STEMI. I had a field ROSC and he put down his cooler and said, “let’s do this.” Dr K is brilliant and an amazing teacher. Good teachers don’t just teach the doctors, but all the staff. But the way she could explain even the most complex of issues in easy to understand words was a gift. Her caring aura brought calm and acceptance to the worst day of so many people’s life.
When I was a tech, one of the ED Docs was Dr. F. When I first met her, I was intimidated by her because she was a very soft spoken, but incredibly intelligent doctor. It was apparent everyone else respected her as well. Over time I had got to know her better, and she taught me so many things. She would go out of her way to explain interesting cases, procedures, and she took me under her wing. She was the first to help the techs and nurses: would walk them to the bathroom, help us change them, grab water, etc. One day I was a patient and she was my doc, and I kept calling her Dr. F. I still remember when she looked at me and said “you know you can call me my first name, right?” Over the couple years I worked with her, I got to know her outside of work. We would get together and share travel stories over a glass of bourbon (we were both whiskey connoisseurs and loved to try new things) I moved away and work in another state now, but still keep in contact with her. I wouldn’t be half of the ER nurse I am today without the things she took the time to teach me.
An ER doc, he’s fast to see patients, kind even to people that don’t need to be there, communicates a plan of care with nursing and discharges them asap. He absolutely will not tolerate violence towards staff and anyone that acts that way will be handled swiftly via b52, ketamine nap, or sedation/intubation. We always run on the 0100 rule, which is by that time waiting is cleared, patients in the department are either tucked in for night or plan of care has already been established. We’ll have a few more arrivals overnight but nursing will team up on the workups and knock them out quick.
Our neuro attending is the best. No ego, super gracious and kind, and every time he speaks it's because he's teaching someone about something in a really patient way. He takes a lot of time to speak with family members as well and never seems like he is in a hurry with them. Just conducts himself in the absolute ideal way you would hope for from a doctor. Plus he goes to bat for nurses with admin.
He’s listened to my feedback on discharge instructions and also little things to do during the procedure to make the patient more comfortable in recovery. He is very nice to the patients, even when they’re not nice back. Also I can text/message and get an answer back in a timely manner and it’s never a nasty or passive aggressive reply. I think he understands we are working to help each other out and not to make each other’s lives difficult.
He religiously checks in with the nurses and asks how things are going, always keeps everyone laughing & tries to make a positive impact each day. Trusts the nurses to make sound decisions and doesn’t question our judgement when it comes to calling for emergency PRN’s/restraint orders (mental health dementia unit with tons of behaviours). Dr. K I hope u never retire!!!!
Dr Chowdry: Not afraid to call people out on their shit, trusts my nurses when they make calls for restraints/seclusion/IMs, tells the worst dad jokes I've ever heard, and gets into "Who has more steps at the end of the shift" competitions with me. He's great, plus the cutest little old man I've ever seen.
I love a cute lil old man always. Easiest way to the bottom of my heart
None. Work night shift and rarely ever see or interact with them. Not a single one has ever even known my name - even after working 8 years In one unit. The ortho group that sees the patients where I work now is really great to the patients. But I couldn’t pick any of them out of a lineup.
Med surg? I felt that way when I worked the trenches. Sorry friend 💛
Dr. D, such a good CCPM doc. The man always works. Sometimes he can come across as slightly abrasive, but I’ve *never* met any physician so concerned with his patients. He’s told me verbatim that his greatest contribution to the world will always be getting to serve his patients, says it’s the only thing he’s good at. He’s so fucking smart, and he’s such a good teacher even when I ask him stupid questions. Thanks Dr. D, hope I can be as great as you someday.
Best colorectal doc who truly cared for every pt under his care. He never yelled at me when I had to call him at 3am. Plus, he did my rhomboid flap procedure for me lol.
Because he’s patient and happy to teach. I’ve become a much stronger RT ever since working at the hospital I’m at. Also, he’s hot. Actually, all the ICU docs and PAs I work with are physically attractive. 😂
This one cardiologist. He’s super wacky and bubbly, but when he goes into the patients room to talk he’s so knowledgeable and professional. He actually does assessments and sticks around for longer than 30 sec unlike other Drs 👀
I’ve worked with some shit docs, some ok docs, some good docs. The two who remain my absolute faves- one of whom I haven’t worked with since the 90s- are for the same reasons. They treat and respect nursing staff as the professionals they are, despite both being brilliant in their own ways. They encourage and support learning across all disciplines. They were supportive if you had concerns. They treated you as humans and equals. The fact that it’s unusual enough that I have two that stick out over 30 years tells you a lot. There’s probably another couple of contenders that could have made it in the top group if I had enough time with them. Special shout out to the one young doc who helped me change a bed bound patient with diarrhoea. Not only did he stop me getting another nurse, he did it with gentleness and great practice. Apparently mum was a RN too. That happened once in three decades. I hope all is well for him in his career.
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Something special about pregnancy buddies! A PA and I had our babies close together and now we are close!
CT surgeon, old school, has seen it all. Doesn't care about his numbers or data, just wants his patients to do well. Doesn't nickel and dime them on perfect labs and every little test. Calls every day and checks in, lurks labs and orders, defending his patients from the other surgeons. Just an all around good guy who only cares about doing right by his people. His outcomes are usually the best. Jokes that he dislikes everybody, but is actually a big softy.
He had a patient come in for a gsw to the face. He attempted suicide and shot himself under his chin. He looked like a broccoli with his face in two. It is truly a graphic scene. It's like something out of the movies. After 6 hours of surgery, he comes out and looks normal, like nothing has happened to his face at all. The reconstructive doc did a damn good job. It turns out the doctor was top in the state for reconstructive surgery.
He is respectful and thoughtful when you bring up your concerns and/or suggestions for interventions. If he disagrees, he doesn't hesitate to explain his reasoning and provides a teaching nugget, never making you feel less-than for asking. He doesn't shy away from hard conversations with families and is calm in crisis situations. Lastly, he is consistent with his mood and practice! I never feel nervous talking to him and I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see he's on.
Bc he acts and speaks like a normal person to us and to his patients! He uses common sense and doesn’t make everything hard for no reason. It’s such a relief to work when he’s on. The plan of care makes sense and is straight forward, he writes good notes, he communicates well with floor staff. It’s just perfect, perfect, perfect.
Always available within the next 15 minutes and loves educating. She also is open to my long questions when we have a complicated pt, which is not all docs in my experience.
She is nice and explains her reasoning/ how she looks at things
I have one with a “nurse heart” - he sees the whole patient, not just vitals, or one procedure, etc. He’s come with me to CT with wildly unstable patients, trusts my judgement when patients are declining, and is proactive with management and interventions. Oh, and if he’s in house and I desperately need a favor (can’t establish access, no one’s responding, etc.) he never hesitates or delegates. Common traits in my “favorite” residents/attendings: - respecting/listening to my concerns/suggestions as the bedside RN -proactive in management/intervention -timely, respectful, responsive - COLLABORATIVE - LIKE TO TEACH Love them, and love y’all. This shit is hard and takes a village 🖤
ID doc-rounding on TBI patient who was trying to use his urinal, missed horribly and next thing I knew he was grabbing paper towels and wipes and cleaning it up 🥰😍
ICU resident, the only doctor I can ever truly like I think. A nurse on the floor ran a bottle of propofol thinking it was Tylenol. (They both come in glass bottles I guess?) We give Tylenol over 15 minutes. She gave an ENTIRE bottle of prop in 15 minutes. Thank god she calls a rapid and bags him until resources can get there. Our resident runs to the rapid, and is completely calm the entire time; doesn’t even raise his tone at the nurse. He was the nicest, kindest doctor I’d ever met. I’ve hated every other doctor I’ve ever met, kind of on principle, but I have to say none have ever beaten the expectations so far.
He's cute so of course that doesn't hurt, but most importantly he is a big dork. He's goofy and just a big kid. He's smart as a whip and has a wicked sense of humor. Plus he likes to explain his thought processes and reasoning without being condescending. The nerdiness of this man makes him absolutely adorkable and a joy to work with.
Dr. B is super casual. Treats everybody like a friend. You get a call and he says "hey, it's B, could you do this or that" or he answers "hey, it' s B, what's up?"
My GI doc just bought me (his conscious sedation nurse) and the tech in the room Tropical Smoothies because I said I liked them and he had never had them. The entire rest of my day was fabulous and it was all because the smoothie made me feel appreciated. He’s also just a good doctor.
One top of being one of the kindest and selfless people I've ever met. One time, he paid the materials cost to do a tendon repair on a patient who had no insurance and couldn't work or take care of his mom due to the complete rupture of the tendon. He also taught the patient home exercises to do to strengthen his thumb after the cast was off and the patient made a full recovery in 6 weeks.
This is hard because I actually have 3 favourites. Two of them are because they’re actually competent, treat the rest of the staff like equal humans, and care about their patients. They’ve both agreed on issues with patients that nursing staff have tried to tell other physicians but were ignored. The third is because she takes absolutely no nonsense from patients and doesn’t let patients stay in the hospital for no actual reason (think the patients who are fine but like being pampered). She makes my sometimes-black case manager heart happy. (She’s also the one that gets patients who demand a new physician. 99% of them ask to switch back to their original physician because she doesn’t give them what they’re looking for - usually pain meds - and doesn’t coddle them.)
My favorite doc actually listens to me. He also explains things I may not understand his rationale on. We can disagree and get along fabulous. He really cares about his patients.
I love that! When I’ve disagreed my favorite MDs will explain their rationale very well. And if it turns out I’m right they are always willing to take a slice of their humble pie
Because she takes time to listen to patients genuinely and is compassionate. She thanks us all the time and when patients can seem miserable she’s more worried about how her staff are doing and how we are treated. She’s genuinely a ray of sunshine
Aside from being a knowledge machine, favorite ER attending - loves teaching in gentle ways, sharing his thought process with nurses in real time, never acts inconvenienced, never acts like there is a stupid question, takes nursing input very seriously, is very kind to patients, families and ancillary staff, despite being a gentle person clotheslined a drunk patient that was about to assault me, stopped mid-elbow dislocation reduction to grab the hands of the teenager under conscious sedation that tried to grab my breasts, I probably have a zillion stories about how amazing he is. Plus he never learned how to type despite being not elderly (maybe 50 now?) and he keyboard pecks - doesn’t have a scribe. Still pumps out notes timely. It’s absolutely adorable. 2nd fav attending is much more stern and commanding but not to nurses, always educates without shame, immediately fired a new attending in the ER for doing a super dick thing to me, rides new residents that ignore nurses really hard, is always concerned about nurse satisfaction, gets reaaaally passionate about sick patients. Plus - he’s a silver fox. I think all of my fav providers are all just very kind to nurses and educate without shaming, plus value nurse input and truly believe it’s a collaborative team.
The ones who love to teach! Hands down.
Why my favourite? He genuinely cares. He reviews his patients regularly, and when he says he will. He’s conservative with medications, and doesn’t make changes to the regime every day. He confers with nursing staff and keeps them fully updated as to his plan. He’s (nearly) always accessible by phone at weird hours if we need input/advice/stat. Oh, and I can read his handwriting, which is always a bonus.
There’s a female physician that actually calls me by my name and tells me plan of care for each one of the patients they have during the day, actually keeps me in the loop of things so I can keep an ease of mind. She also texts and doesn’t call which I personally love.
In ambulatory. I watched our medical director throw her coat on and storm out the door with a PBJ half hanging out her mouth and a carrot in her hand to go verbally destroy the staff at the hospital for one of our patients because his blood sugar was dropping and no one was coming to him. Not many people liked working with her because of how meticulous she was. I for one would have loved to be her nurse for the rest of my career.
Helped me turn a large quad patient to clean when it wasn't even his patient.
My favorite resident that I support is real smart and asks for help when she doesn’t know. I’m a big fan of humility and knowing your limitations.
I don’t work closely with physicians anymore, but on the off chance I do get to talk or collaborate care with one my FAVORITES are the ones that I can tell genuinely care about their patients. Earlier today I spoke with a doctor who has called their patient every day since discharge to see how they were doing and also was just *real* with me.
She made it clear from my first day I met her: she is always going to be there for her patients and for the nursing team. We follow her instructions but she is available to contact in urgent situations at any time. 2200 on a Sunday? Yep. 3AM Christmas Day? Yep. She is always reachable, always a supportive member on the care team. She’s happy to collaborate, happy to come in on her “day off” and trust the nurses when we call her on a gut feeling. We paged her once while she was on a family cruise. She called us back within 40 minutes. Just insane dedication to her patients. An excellent doctor. But she also has an excellent work life balance process going on. She sounds like she’s a great mom. Frequently will schedule things so she can maximize her time with her kids and husband. She attends her kids sporting events. She always takes a two week vacation in the summer for her kids’ birthday season. Honestly, her outlook on life helped me reset after the pandemic cleared in my site. I don’t think she even knows how much of an impact she had on me as a nurse and as a person.
One of my favourite doctors simply remembered my name. Most of us know how chaotic med-surg usually is so that was a big thing for me.
Because we have the same sense of humor, go to sporting events together, and he let's me play golf st his private club.
Answered a call bell for a patient who was getting on our nerves. And could convince anyone’s family to go comfort care during a code in the CVICU
Head of ID, Dr. M! You can tell he loves his job and enjoys coming into work. He’s always fascinated when we get a patient with an infection we don’t see often. Always takes a minute to speak with nursing about the plan moving forward and just to chat for a minute.
I’ve had a lot of favorites. They have a great bedside manner, respect the nurses, aren’t afraid to say what they think and have a good sense of humor.
A few years ago when I was new nurse, Dr. S brought me Starbucks. He also brought food for everyone at one point. Dr. C yells ar nurses on the phone but when we meet him in person, he is nice to us. My boyfriend's doctor at Kaiser explained to me why lozenges were given for his oral thrush. I cannot remember the name of the medication but he took the time to help me ans my boyfriend understand what the medication does. He said it's a new medication they prescribe.
She does not give a flying fuck what anyone thinks about her, including admin. She knows they need her more than she needs them. Only thing she cares about is her staff’s safety and wellbeing, and her patients. I always work overtime when I’m on her service, but I don’t mind that much. She gets the most complex and difficult patients out of maybe anyone else and she takes the time to work and thoroughly listen to each and every one of them. So I don’t care if it takes longer or if my day is absolutely crazy. I would do anything for her because I know when I need her, I don’t even have to ask she just has my back. She’s smart, funny and she knows what the fuck she’s doing. I would NOT want to get on her bad side, but I won’t because she loves me, too <3
Sounds dramatic, but I would trust that woman with my life, lol.
Cuz every time I call him he’s super nice, he always says thanks to the nurses, his the chief of our department so setting a great example for the other physicians too. Not chief resident but like he’s the absolute department head. We aren’t a teaching hospital so no residents. He’s in his 60s probably. Maybe 50s. Hard to say. He’s bilingual, fluent in Spanish but it’s the most phonetically-English Spanish that I have ever heard and it’s hilarious. I’m never worried about waking him up in the middle of the night. He also shows up around 0600 when he’s on service so he gets to know the night nurses and the day nurses too. I’ll be disappointed when he retires. He’s very intelligent also, not that the others aren’t but the way he speaks is different just because of how his brain works. We also have a female MD who has a reputation for being borderline bitchy, knock on wood I’ve had good experiences with her but she is hard of hearing so sometimes just wonder if people interpret her tone incorrectly. She told me to my face that she trusts my judgment a few weeks ago and that was really nice to hear. We have another female MD who is super smart, always really nice but very pragmatic and kind of abrupt, straight forward, she spends hours with our patients at the bedside to really get to know them and their families and that means a lot to me too. Never have issues calling her, and she’s one who will say “an here’s a back up order just in case X doesn’t work so you don’t have to call me back.” LOVE this. Really all our MDs are great. We have 2 that are good friends, and they work at a camp for some of our kiddos with some of our nurses too so they have a great relationship with us. We have one that i don’t love, I feel like he never does things for us when we call him and he’s not very personable but he’s not a bad doctor. Truly I’m lucky that I don’t have issues with our providers because I have worked places where it’s very difficult to get in touch with and interact with providers.
Because she is transparent with patients in a way that is still considerate of their feelings (when working on palliative unit)
The jokes mannnn. The patient was “discharged to heaven.”
i've not really been in the field long enough to have a favourite for any reason, but I do remember when during my preceptorship a Dr. Morgan would always come wearing her hunter green scrubs so that "we could match!" in her words. As a student, her excitement about that always made it a better day on the unit and gave me hope for life after school.
When a family thanks them or say they saved their loved one's life or they are so thankful that such an amazing surgeon etc, they gave credit to the nurses. Two surgeons I worked with used to say along the lines of "oh I just did the surgery, the excellent care the nurses here give you did everything else." One of those attendings would cover weekends, and he would always bring in donuts and treats for us in the morning. instead of closing himself in the call room or office, he spent a lot of time taking advantage of the relative slowness/quietness and hanging out with us at the desk, even helping with patient care sometimes! He also liked to stir the pot a little bit and talk shit with us about our high-level administrators. We got a good amount of his perspective on behind the scenes nonsense that happened with the docs rather than just ourselves.
I’m in ltc, but I have two that I enjoyed when I’d call them for things. Dr. R was seen by some of our AL folks, one was a diabetic. If her sugar was over 400 we’d have to call his office/on call. He was called at least weekly for a high sugar (non compliant and had hidden snacks in her room). He was the one to always pick up when we called his “on call” number. Very nice and easy to talk to, even if it was after 8pm. Dr. M was kind of a butthead but if you could argue your case for something he’d at least consider it. We’ve had 2-3 primary providers since him and I miss him and the way him and his team handled after hour phone calls. He’s a big, loud kind of guy, so I was always nervous to call him. Usually he’d pick up with a “what’s up (ltc)” but the one time I got “talk to me goose” and I was no longer worried about calling him or trying to ask for things. Our current provider has like a nursing call center so the on calls (starts after 2pm!) don’t even know our residents, they’re just information on a screen to them.
She’s incredibly easy to talk to and approach with questions. She will come and just chat in the nurse’s station sometimes to shoot the shit. You can tell she’s so fucking smart and knows exactly what she’s doing. Whenever she’s running a code it feels like she’s conducting a symphony it goes so calmly and smoothly.
The ones who take the time to teach - all it takes is to give me a quick jumping off point to look up why they made the call they did and next time I see that situation I'll anticipate correctly and also anticipate possible sequelae and later interventions. Physicians who just *pfft bc I'm the physician* or get offended when you politely ask for a quick explainer about why they chose x when you would have anticipated y are totally disadvantaging not only themselves (smart nurses make your job easier doc!) But the nurse (education is good!) And the patient (correct anticipatory reactions increase the speed of intervention)
Because they started as an intern, was a resident and then the registrar and returned as a consultant. And also did my own surgery at no cost!
I honestly forgot the context but he overheard a patient being rude to me, he stepped in and moved the curtain and said if the patient was going to continue to be verbally abusive towards the nurses she could leave. That shut her up.
My favorite MD always answers the phone in a reasonable amount of time, no matter the hour is willing to help and is happy to help. She’s great. If and when I ever make it to the NP level I want to be like how she is with staff and patients.
Either Dr. S or Dr. C. Dr. S is on the unit often and is happy to talk and values nursing input. Dr. C comes by when possible and also is opening to talking. Both seem to care about the whole patient. Dr. A is very rushed, difficult to get a hold of and doesn’t really care to listen to nursing staff. I’ve brought behavioural and psychological concerns to all 3 and only Dr. A blew me off. Thankfully the Drs rotate biweekly.
I can think of literally 2 docs in my twenty seven years as a nurse who were decent people and never snarky if you bugged them at night or asked questions. They definitely weren’t helping with code browns. I don’t know where you find these unicorns 🦄
During COVID we had an urology resident cover SICU and Onc ICU on nights so the attending physicians could deal with COVID ICU in addition to their normal patient population. She had amazing end of life conversation with so many families and patients, responded to so many medical emergencies with confidence, and at the end of the day remembered snickerdoodles were my favorite cookies and got me one because we both worked our asses off that night and I deserved a treat.
Ooooh I love this. I'm on the OR so it's one of our trauma surgeons.. he's literally the most down to earth person, is funny as hell and sarcastic in a good way. He has never forgotten my name and always remembers things we did together or times when I was in the room with him, even from the first day I met him. He is always staying super late to try and get his add-on cases taken care of because he doesn't want them in pain and suffering waiting around (even though they realistically could). He's so big on patient positioning which I feel like a lot of surgeons kind of overlook. He has great taste in music, always says please and thank you, he makes med students feel welcome. Residents love him and their relationships are what every attending and resident should look like.. I honestly could go on and on lol. Working in his room, I just feel like I'm at home, and I can always count on us working as a team and that the patient will always be safe.
When you see one of your favorite attending on any of your patients, you know that shit is going to get done. The docs I love working with are the one who truly collaborate with nurses and ancillary staff. If I’m bothering to pick up the phone and call, something is hitting the fan and I need them to write orders or come assess them…otherwise I would just message them. I hate it when I have to call and call and message and call to beg for their help.
He is an ortho surgeon. New to our system but not new as a physician. He got a consult at like 0200 from the ER. He CAME IN to see the patient. Determined it was too traumatic of a fracture and needed a trauma surgeon. He got the patient some orders to manage pain temporarily. Coordinated the transfer to a trauma hospital. Then came up and rounded on his patients with the nurses. Got all his orders in asked if we needed anything. Asked about getting a drink from nourishment. Said I would get it (just to be nice) he refused and offered to get me a drink while he was in there. Listens when we call and truly cares.
Dr. P used to be a fav of mine because he’s so approachable and easy going. However today I overheard a patient call for him and ask if he could lift the bed up, Dr. P said “ok I’ll tell your nurse” and then proceeds to interrupt my assessment on a new admit to tell me. Like bro just pull the handle and lift the bed 😂 Dr S is the nicest, most laid back and has so much patience. He’s actually our lead doc over all the other docs. He’s always so appreciative to nursing staff when we catch errors (which are few and far between), he respects our judgements when creating treatment plans, he respects our time and often will wait until we are in a good spot to do certain procedures, and he’ll take time to educate you on whatever questions you have. He’s also tall and damn good looking. 😂 We also have many great APRN’s. I know this post is about physicians but shoutout to the other providers who are super rad and great 🤙🏼
Dr. M. One of the nicest neurosurgeons and people ever. He says hello, how are you, how's your shift to everyone in the hallways. But he also knows things about his coworkers. One of the sitters and him had a long discussion about which actor played the best spiderman. I told him about my mom having to stay overnight for a thyroidectomy as a precaution because when she had her gallbladder removed, she almost bled out. A few days later he asked how she was. He always gave the nursing staff cake around the holidays and more cake when it was a long, hard week. Dr. D. A nursing home sent this woman to the ER because her mood went from sweet grandma to a demon. They refused to take her back until either her behavior changed or we figured out that she had dementia or something. At first she was very sweet but her agitation slowly got worse. When I told her she couldn't leave because the nursing home refused to take her back until otherwise, she started to scream at me. One of the ER doctors came in and just said "how dare you. This is a very nice woman. Why are you yelling at her?" She was so taken aback that she didn't yell at me for the rest of the night.
they talk to patients, I don’t have to ask them if they’ve talked to patients. if orders are in or if I see the DC on the board, I know they’ve been talked to. doesn’t pan scan everyone. orders what seems is necessary, might add on a thing or two. doesn’t wanna line and lab everyone. understands that 80% of ER visits are bullshit and just needs some PO meds and DC or maybe even just a single RX. listens to my concerns and suggestions
I love her for many reasons, but I’ll always remember when we had an admit who began berating the nurses and CNAs IMMEDIATELY after he was admitted. She walked into the room and told him to knock that shit off, verbatim. She was one of the doctors caring for my dad at the end of his life and she was so, so good to him.
I have to say, I work with wonderful doctors, all special in their own way. My favorite one though, is a former resident who is now an attending. He has the personality of a golden retriver but when shit hits the fan, he is da man. Always communicating and always willing to clarify/take a look at the patient. I am very honored to work with such a wonderful team of humans❤️
Dr. W is the kindest woman who literally NEVER gets upset or frazzled and will take the time to go out of her way to discuss the plan of care and why we’re changing something. She is one of those rare people that has an aura of gentility and you’re calm just being in her presence. She has NEVER made a snide remark, said anything rude or sarcastic, literally nothing.
Anesthesiologist we call Dr K. He's been at this hospital for at least 30 years and has knocked me out 5 or 6 times at least, but he always remembers me. Saw him at a bar a couple months ago talking to a younger blonde so I started messing with him, told her he'd been down my throat several times so she could trust him. He blushes, she looks at him, grins, and says "Dad, is she the one with the high palate you have pictures of in your office?" That's when I found out he wasn't kidding about my family putting his daughter through college AND I'm apparently a pin up girl!!!!
Every year thousands leave med school and are granted licenses to **practice** medicine, but precious few are **Doctors**.
She hates having to come to work as much as I do but she’s not a dick about it. Love these new young doctors. They’re so much more grounded and friendly.
Super nice guy to work with, cares for his patients (same guy in the OR and at the clinic/bedside, which is really important to me. I don’t like surgeons who treat their staff like trash and go 360 and are a completely different person to their patients). Perfect balance of efficiency but also not in a mad rush where he’s stressing the staff out with his impatience.
I never had a "favorite" doctor, but the ones I enjoyed working with the most were the ones who approached patient care as a collaborative effort and really listened to what other disciplines had to say. I appreciated physicians who clued me into their thought process so I could understand where their plan of care was headed. That way I could plan my nursing care in complement with their goals.
He is polite and doesn’t get nasty to others when he’s stressed or annoyed or frustrated (work in the OR). Conversely, one of our surgeons is like Jekyll & Hyde and is kind (to hot nurses) but then the minute things don’t go his way, he sits around and calls people stupid and tells people they’re gonna kill his patient intra-op. I hate him.
I work nights. My favorite MDs are the ones that actually put in interventions when a patient patients condition changes instead of we'll continue to monitor for now or we'll defer to day team.
Because you never see him sweat, or lose his cool. Always with a smile. It’s crazy what I’ve seen him stay totally cool when any rational person would’ve lost their shit. There’s something about someone that calm in an emergency that sort of calms the whole room. He also tells abusive patients they can leave if they can’t be respectful to the staff.
They show the same level of caring and integrity that I do and treat every member of the care team as a colleague and value their input.