Opportunities for improving communication between physicians and nurses pop up every day. You find them in the irate doctor who belittles a nurse right in front of her patient, or in the physician who refuses to call nurses by name. It is during these unfortunate events that the chance to speak your truth arises. Here are two opportunities.

Be part of a zero-tolerance policy

A few years ago, the Texas Nurses Association stepped forward and unanimously passed a resolution that calls for zero tolerance of physician abuse. Verbal abuse is a broad category of behaviors that includes tone of voice and mannerisms. Research indicates that 40% of nurses surveyed (in a 2001 report) did not have a workplace policy that supported reporting of verbal abuse.

A policy defines unacceptable behavior and its consequences, and it provides a much-needed support structure for the nurse. However, a lone policy has proven not to be a deterrent to abuse unless it is followed and supported by both staff and administration. Therefore, if your hospital or clinic has a policy in place, familiarize yourself and your colleagues with it and cite specific examples of staff who have used it successfully. If there is no policy in place, advocate for one to be adopted-and that it be zero-tolerance.

Use your name as a powerful equalizer

Make sure that the physicians with whom you work frequently know your name. Daily communication should be mandatory–not optional–and calling someone by his or her name is a basic sign of respect. Therefore, introduce yourself to physicians, and if they forgot your name, reintroduce yourself.

Always include something unique and personal about yourself or the person you are introducing (e.g., a hobby, your birthplace, etc.). When a physician can relate on a personal level, the relationship shifts; he or she stops viewing you as just another nurse and starts seeing you as a unique human being. Also, encourage new staff to wear a special nametag so that physicians can identify newcomers and make them feel welcome. This also gives physicians the “heads up” on staff who would benefit from receiving additional information.

Names can also shift a relationship from degrading to professional. At one hospital, a nurse approached me and asked whether there was anything specific she could do to improve a situation she was having with an older physician. They physician was not overtly abusive, but he was always subtly demeaning. My advice to her was that when there is a physician who is degrading and, as is often the case, he calls you by your first name, set the state for a more equal relationship by saying, “I would appreciate it if you called me Mrs. So and so, and not by my first name.” Remember, names are powerful equalizers.

Editor’s note: This excerpt is adapted from Speak Your Truth: Proven Strategies for Effective Nurse-Physician Communication, HCPro, Inc., 2004.