Doctors Vs. Dietitians

For the past month or so I have been collecting data for my QI about how often the doctors actually follow the recommendations of the dietitians. Overall, I wouldn't say the outcome has proved to be favorable towards the dietitians. To make things worse this past weekend a doctor actually told a dietitian that all we do is carry around our calculators and are essentially useless because we don't look at the big picture we only see nutrition as a science. I find it increasingly frustrating that very few of the doctors here actually follow the orders but just arbitrarily write TPN/TF orders that rarely meet the nutritional needs and as a result patients suffer. Ego is a big issue here to the point where the dietitians actually have to write please and thank you notes at times in the progress notes for a doctor to even consider their orders. As a follow up to the QI I am going to hand out a RD perception survey to doctors, nurses, speech and pharmacists to get an idea how they all feel about our role in the hospital. Ill keep everyone posted on what I find out although I have a feeling it wont be reassuring.