title: On Being Fired: When Patients or Their Parents Fire Their Physician.
abstract: Wait, what? I've been fired?" I repeated, in the middle of morning rounds in the neonatal intensive care unit. Finally, the nurse who was taking care of our patient, Angela, responded, "Her parents fired you last night. They've already called Patient Relations. They want a new doctor." My heart sank. Only days into my block of service time as the attending physician in the NICU and I was fired, axed, canned, rejected by a family. How could this have happened? On my first day of service, I had introduced myself to Angela's parents, and I had then met with them daily to review results and the plan and to answer their questions. I thought we had connected well. I thought I had done everything right. I thought they trusted me to care for their daughter.
authors.forename: Christy L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Cummings
mesh_terms: D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D006801:Humans; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal; D010290:Parents; D011368:Professional-Family Relations