I had a nurse disregard a Doctor's orders as a patient once. I fell around 5-6 metres (16-18 foot) through a plasterboard ceiling, managed to break my fall somewhat by grabbing onto what was left of the ceiling at the last second but still hit the ground pretty hard -- landed on my tailbone, jarred my spine pretty badly. I was pretty blindsided by what had happened, so without really thinking I got up and managed to stagger down stairs and sit on the lounge, thinking I just needed to rest and calm down and everything would be okay. That's when the pain and muscle spasms started to really kick in, and I became concerned that perhaps I'd done a bit more than just jar myself. So I phoned for an Ambulance, still kind of expecting they'd check me out and say I just needed to take some over the counter pain meds and continue resting, perhaps apply some heat or an icepack, maybe. They decided I needed to go to hospital to be assessed properly, so fair enough off we go.
I end up being taken straight through to the ED as a priority 2 triage (urgent, to be seen within 20 minutes I believe it is) -- which admittedly surprised me, but I wasn't overly worried because I'm still thinking 'bruised my tailbone, jarred my spine, they'll give me a quick look over and send me home'. And then one of the Doctors on duty comes and assesses me, and starts barking orders at the attending Nurse - "I want a priority X-ray, do NOT move her without Fentanyl". Um, okay then? Don't move me without Fentanyl? Should I start panicking right about now? Yes, yes I think I will. It wasn't so much what the Doctor had said, but the way in which he said it. He made it sound like some dire calamity would happen if anyone dared try and move me without first having given me a dose of Fentanyl, and admittedly I started to panic and think that maybe I'd hurt myself way worse than I thought (I wasn't expecting to be given any sort of narcotic pain meds, let alone hear a Doctor sounding so adamant that I *had* to be given said medication before anyone tried to move me, so naturally all sorts of dire things were going through my mind). He scrawled his orders in my chart, handed it to the Nurse, went off to tend other patients, and when the hospital porter came to take me down to x-ray I still hadn't received the medication that was ordered by the Doctor so at the point I basically freaked the f**k out. I was completely embarrassed by the way I acted after the fact, but I started raising my voice, and shouting, and pleading hysterically for them to 'check my chart, the Doctor said not to move me without Fentanyl, you can't move me without Fentanyl, the Doctor ordered it, it's in my chart!' (I know, I behaved shamefully
).
The porter steps back at that point and indicates to the Nurse that if those were the Doctor's orders then he's not taking me anywhere until they've been carried out, so then I've got this Nurse glaring down at me and more or less informing me that she knows what the Doctor's orders were, but I didn't need to be given Fentanyl to be taken down to x-ray. Then she starts firing questions at me, 'why did I get up straight after the fall?' 'Why did I wait several minutes to phone for an ambulance?' 'Why didn't I feel the full amount of pain straight away?' etc etc (um, okay, hang on a sec and I'll just go get my medical degree so I can answer those questions for you, Nurse). Then she decides that I can't be taken to x-ray or given Fentanyl, despite what the Doctor had written in my chart, because she has to do a pregnancy test on me first -- and if I couldn't manage to give a sample by using a bed pan or commode chair, then she'd have to catheterise me (she made damn sure I knew just how painful that was going to be as well, plus I also had the lovely vision of the damage that was done to my Dad's urethera by a poorly placed catheter post prostate surgery, none of which was exactly helping me to calm down). So there I am in the middle of the ED, in full of view of everyone, struggling to give a urine sample, with a nurse yelling at me to get off the bed and onto a commode chair (which I was trying my best to actually do, except for the fact that almost every time I tried to move my back muscles would go into horrendously painful spasms).
The Doctor eventually comes back to check up on the progress of my case, sees what the Nurse is trying to get me to do, realises I've not been taken to x-ray, not been given any medication he ordered, basically had everything he'd written in my chart contravened -- and he starts demanding answers, and he's not exactly happy at what he's hearing. Of course by now the Nurse is being oh so nice and deferential, but nope, he's having none of it. Gave her a lecture about contravening a Doctor's orders, made her fetch the Fentanyl, and administered it himself. Off I went to x-ray and as it turns out I was right all along, bruised tailbone, jarred spine, and apparently my back muscles had locked up as a protective measure to prevent any further potential injury. I asked the Doctor the same questions the Nurse had been rapid firing at me, and his answer was basically 'Well adrenalin can do funny things sometimes'. I was discharged after another couple of hours observation, hubby came to pick me up, and all I needed was some bed rest, apply a heat pack if needed and take some over the counter pain killers.
Now maybe I did overreact when I called an ambulance, maybe I should have just stuck with my initial assessment which turned out to be right, and I know I definitely shouldn't have made a scene and started yelling and carrying on when I was in the Emergency Department. But a) I'm not a Doctor so I couldn't actually be sure of what injuries I did or didn't have, and b) the Nurse was given clear instructions by the Doctor overseeing my case, instructions which were were written up in my chart, and she chose not to carry those instructions out because apparently she knew better.