In today’s story, a nurse tells us about a resident, who she describes as a “junior doctor,” who both complains about being bored and also seems too lazy to fulfill basic requests.

The nurse ends up complying with the resident’s request, and it backfires on him, forcing him to do what he should’ve been doing all along.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

Tell me to call the emergency doctor for a phone order instead of recharting? Okay.

I’m a clinical nurse in physical rehabilitation in Australia.

I will never forget a lot of our residents (junior doctors) for being brilliant, but one resident I will never forget because he was awful.

One fateful Thursday, I overheard him complaining to the consultant and registrar, “It’s boring here. There’s nothing to do.”

I know it’s not the most high-energy place to be, and it’s definitely not for everyone, but I thought that was a little rude and snide, to say the least.

The junior doctor who complained was too lazy to fulfill a simple request.

This same doctor, only a day or two later, was asked to rechart a prn (as-needed) pain order for a patient who was having a lot of pain for acute gout.

We had already had to contact the Emergency Department Medical Registrar (we call them the ED Med Reg for short) overnight the night before for a phone order for her pain relief.

There were no spaces left on her last prn order and, at the time, we did not have a doctor on call overnight at the campus I work at.

Instead of recharting the order, the resident (who, remember, was apparently so bored and had so little to do that he complained both the registrar and the consultant about it) instead chose to write a sticky note telling the nurses to “just call the ED Med Reg for a phone order if she has pain overnight” and stuck it on top of the patient’s previous prn pain relief order.

t would have taken him less time to rewrite the order.

Not to mention as if the ED Med Reg doesn’t have enough work to do in the literal Emergency department!

The patient needed pain relief.

Seeing that note as the night duty nurse on charge and remembering that snide little remark of his made my blood boil.

But it was, of course, nighttime and long past the resident’s knock-off time.

So when the poor patient inevitably had pain overnight, I had no choice but to call.

The ED Med Reg just so happened to be the same doctor as the night before and, rightfully, was a little confused (and slightly annoyed) we were calling for the same phone order two nights in a row when surely the treating team should have written a new order during the day.

She read the sticky note over the phone.

He asked whether we had asked them to do so, and I told him about the sticky note and even read it to him.

I remember a beat of silence on the other end of the phone before he said, “Right.”

Before giving me the phone order.

I thanked him, apologised for having to disturb him, and went to help my patient.

That was the end of the sticky notes.

When I came on the next night, lo and behold!

The resident had written up a new prn order.

In fact, we never saw a sticky note like that again, and prn orders were rewritten in a timely manner.

I don’t know if that doctor ever got spoken to about his smug little sticky note, but I like to think he got a good talking to.

Just because my patients aren’t in ICU or ED doesn’t make them and their health unimportant! They’re still in hospital and deserve proper in-patient healthcare!!

That junior doctor had some nerve to leave that sticky note. It’s great that the ED Med Reg apparently didn’t keep quiet about the issue and got it straightened out.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader found the reality of medicine surprising.

Another reader turns to bribery.

An ICU nurse heard a comment she’ll never forget.

This person is sure the ED talked to the resident.

This reader also knew a resident who was “entitled.”

This woman’s husband sounds like a great doctor.

That doctor isn’t going to make it very far if he inconveniences everyone around him.

Maybe they should teach that in med school.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.