Would you change your pediatrician if one nurse sucked? Like really sucked?

[momm]

I like my pedi a lot. The Doctor's Assistant, the nurse, the receptionists are all really nice.

ONE of the nurses, however, sucks. She has bad manners, she is rude, she does NOT have a good bedside manner.

Today was awful. She came in before the pedi did, and wrote down the symptoms. After, when the pedi read them to me, she has it written down ALL wrong. Not just a tiny mistake but totally wrong.

Of course today I managed to catch it and tell the Doc what the true symptoms are, but isn't this pretty ridiculous? Even the pedi raised her eyebrows when I pointed out the mistakes

I've even asked the nice nurse when she works, so I can go when she is on schedule, but of course it can't all be planned that way

[scrooks]

It would depend on the likelyhood of getting this nurse. Our ped practice is huge and there are probably 3-4 nurses there at a given time. In our case 1 bad nurse wouldn't make me change docs. If there was only 1 nurse and it was probable you would see her a lot I might consider it if she was really really bad. Most likely I would say something to the doc or office manager about your concerns.

[infomama]

I would have chosen remain and complain. That kind of incompetence and her bad attitude needs to be addressed.

[HIU8]

If there are only 2 nurses I would switch b/c you will be getting the bad nurse, there is no way around it. I would, however, let the ped know why you are switching (in a nice way that you like him but simply cannot keep coming and dealing with his nurse who consistently gets things wrong--what if it was a life threatening situation......)

[boolady]

I would have chosen remain and complain. That kind of incompetence and her bad attitude needs to be addressed.

:yeahthat: I wouldn't leave doctors I loved for DD b/c of the nurse, but I would definitely make my feelings about her performance known.

[crayonblue]

I do think it would be a good idea to address the problem with the doctor. If you are having problems with the nurse, other people are too.

I voted look for a new practice though. We had such a horrid experience with nursing care while my middle daughter was alive that I can't and won't tolerate any nursing incompetency and attitude.

The nurse is part of the practice and if she stays, I would go!

[AnnieW625]

I voted for switch practices, but we switched pediatricians in the same practice (there were 6 or 8 peds. in the practice, but they were in separate parts of the building) because I didn't really like the nursing staff in general.

[DebbieJ]

I would find a new practice AND complain. Tell the dr why you are leaving. I don't have time to put up with that kind of bull****.

I left an OB practice for the same reason. LOVED the OB, but the nurse was a total witch and unfortunately she was the ONLY nurse in the practice.

[crl]

We had a nurse with a bad attitude at one practice. I didn't even really have to complain, I just made her look bad in front of the doctor and we never got her again. But there were more nurses there so the odds were better.

I think I would complain to the doctor and if things don't improve then I would consider leaving. It depends a bit on what your other options are.

Catherine

[inmypjs]

I would also provide some feedback to the doctor and see what happens. How the doctor handles feedback is something to pay attention to in itself, and I would base my decision on that.

I was in kind of similar situation recently with our ped, except the practice was much smaller. I loved her (the ped) but her office manager/receptionist was really awful. Cold, unfriendly - especially to kids. Basically the B word. In the practice was the ped, this office manager, and a nurse. I didn't have a problem with the nurse, but we've never had the same one twice! In many years! All I could figure is that maybe the ped is hard to work for, so she has this horrible office manager and a nurse that won't stay very long. Or maybe it is the office manager driving the nurses away...

Anyway, I decided to say something to the ped about the rude office manager. On this particular visit the office manager was scolding my kids for reading the magazines on the rack, because she had just straightened them up. They weren't being wild or anything. I shared this with the ped, and some other things we'd experienced, and unfortunately she did not handle it well. She became very defensive and said I was the only one who has ever said anything like that, and she just couldn't see this person doing that. After that we changed.

[mackmama]

I haven't gotten a chance to read the other answers, but I would speak first to your doc about the nurse. I would also request not to have that nurse again. If that was acceptable to the doc and the practice, I'd stay. If not, I'd probably find a different pedi.

[TwinFoxes]

I would also provide some feedback to the doctor and see what happens. How the doctor handles feedback is something to pay attention to in itself, and I would base my decision on that.


:yeahthat: It would suck to leave only to find out the doctor fired the nurse (or otherwise addressed the problem) because someone finally complained. But if nothing happens after your feedback, I'd leave.

I actually would have said something to the doc when I was correcting the nurse's mistakes along the lines of "you know, I hate to bring it up, this isn't the first time Nurse Ratchet has done something to concern me..."

[twowhat?]

I agree with PPs that I wouldn't leave a ped I loved for a bad nurse yet - I'd try to address the bad nursing with the doc first (i.e. "can we go over that list of milestones again? Last time Nurse X made several mistakes filling out the questionnaire and I want to be sure it is correct this time")

Our ped has a very low tolerance for bad nurses. When I just had the babies one of the nurses told us that DD2 "failed her hearing test". When I told our pediatrician, he frowned and said "Who said that? What was her name? She should have told you that the hearing test was unable to be completed and that it would need to be repeated." He was clearly upset over how that information was conveyed to us. Your doc may want to hear any negative feedback since it impacts his/her practice.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

:yeahthat: It would suck to leave only to find out the doctor fired the nurse (or otherwise addressed the problem) because someone finally complained. But if nothing happens after your feedback, I'd leave.

I actually would have said something to the doc when I was correcting the nurse's mistakes along the lines of "you know, I hate to bring it up, this isn't the first time Nurse Ratchet has done something to concern me..."

:yeahthat:
I would definitely speak to the ped first. I'd think he/she would want to know about it. I would only leAve if I complained and nothing was done about it. Taking a baby to the ped can be stressful enough, you don't need a crappy nurse to make it even worse

And lol at "nurse ratchet"...that is the name that came to my mind too :)

[eh613c]

I'm curious to know if this particular nurse has always been like this (rude).

If you really like almost all of the people in the practice, stay. It's difficult to find pedi that you and your kids like. If this nurse is rude and gets everything wrong all the time, then let your pedi know.

[s7714]

I would complain about the current nurse and see if the situation improves. There's no guarantee that switching practices won't land you in an even worse situation.

[sidmand]

I changed because everyone except the doctor sucked although one person was really really really bad. In fact I heard multiple complaints about her over the years to the point where I wondered why she was still there. I had heard about people refusing to have appointments if she was the only one they would have and putting in the DCs charts that she was to have nothing to do with their visit--obviously it didn't make a difference because this was YEARS later that she was still there.

But EVERYONE in the practice was bad--to the point where they accused me of making up DS's 9-month appointment totally (yeah, I wanted to take off the day to take him there just for the heck of it!). If it was just one nurse and I could manage to avoid her, I think I would complain and remain or just ask that she never be allowed to see my DCs. If that couldn't be done, I would change.