4 Kinds Of Doctors Nurses Love Working With

Doctors are no more alike than nurses are. Some make a shift harder than it needs to be. These four make it easier.

The Easygoing Doctor

Staff greet this one with a smile. He orders food for everyone after a rough shift, asks how the patients are doing and how your day is going, and rarely shows up in a bad mood.

"Doctors who can crack a good joke are easy to work with. It means they are approachable and see you as part of the team," one veteran ward nurse said.

The Patient-Oriented Doctor

Patients can tell when a doctor truly cares, and they ask when this one is coming back. Patient-oriented doctors put patient welfare first and rearrange their own schedules to do it. They do not like making people wait.

Nurses like working with them because they do not snap at a late-night call to confirm a patient's diet, and their attentiveness means fewer frustrated patients to manage.

The Skilled Doctor

In an emergency, the last thing you want is a doctor who fumbles the instruments or freezes on the orders. It slows the procedure and puts the patient at risk.

"I worked with a doctor who went completely blank during a critical emergency. I do not know if it was lack of sleep or that he just did not know what to do. We revived the patient, but barely," one ER nurse supervisor with 10 years on the job said.

A skilled, knowledgeable doctor means you and your patient are in good hands. The tradeoff is that the strongest clinicians are often weakest at the bedside and least open to suggestions, so as the patient's advocate you have to know when to speak up.

The Team-Player Doctor

This doctor gives the same respect to everyone, from the nurse to the dietitian, and treats patient care as a shared effort. Instead of just handing down orders, he asks for your read first. That courtesy comes back to him, and the whole team works better for it.