As I pulled through the drive through one of the baristas, I usually get coffee from, noticed I has a stethoscope in my car. She asked me if I was a doctor? I told her that I was a Registered Nurse. She looked gobsmacked by my response. She then advised me to "Act Like a DOCTOR!," because I used a stethoscope! OMG! I think I was possessed by "Betty Davis," or the "Ghost of Spartan (from the God of War video game) from that point on. I responded, No Thank You, I am proud to be a Nurse! Nurses keep patients alive! She tried to press her perspective that doctors were better and that they are the ones who save lives. That just made me boil. Did I even need the coffee (complete after thought). I retorted: We are the first the in patient's rooms, and when a patient's heart stops, we are the ones in their rooms trying to keep them alive!!! Respect the Nurses!!!
Its just been a full circle week: trying to prevent narcotic errors from Doctors who prescribe, don't verify, and clearly don't understand the impact to their patients they are taking care off. Doctors prescribing and not following REM guidelines and ignoring nursing concerns, till multiple staff members are saying, "wake up and listen."
We do so much, and there is a big difference from prescribing and administering. Administration is a lot more work, but that does not mean that we administrators don't understand prescribing criteria.
The mythology of what nurses do needs to stop being told. Nurses are equal protagonists, doctors and nurses are fighting to keep patients alive, but the discrediting of nursing practice needs to stop.
