Our jobs as nurses is to protect/help/serve the doctors.

studentdrtobe · Jul 10, 2012

i saw a t-shirt once that said, "thank a nurse! they are the ones who keep doctors from killing you".

if you think about it, all those things are really protecting the patient from inept physicians. we're not protecting physicians by doing all those things. we're protecting patients. you are absolutely not obligated to implement a wrong order. the reverse is true-- you are mandated not to implemement a blatantly wrong order.

this whole "we protect patient's from those stupid, mean doctors" mantra has probably been one of the most annoying things i've encountered in medical training so far.

you'd be surprised how often we residents and attendings protect the patients from nursing errors. i don't think i've gone a single day in the hospital this past year w/o fixing/preventing a mistake made by a nurse and this was fairly common during my two years of rotations during med school also (i'm a pgy-2 now). the number of nursing mistakes at every single hospital i've rotated through so far has far exceeded those made by physicians. the difference is that we doctor's only discuss this stuff in the physician's lounge and don't go around wearing shirts telling the public that we protect them from other healthcare workers' mistakes.

i feel like physicians are the only ones who get any training regarding working in a health-care team these days. everyone else seems to be competing against each other, which is absolutely ridiculous in a clinical setting.

not me. what i do i do for my patients. in my view the rns job is to heal the patient. the physicians job is to diagnose, and in the case of surgeons, do surgery. i heal them, or failing that assist them to the highest level of functioning possible for them, or failing that help them die as comfortably as possible. they are _my_ patients.

:rolleyes:

yea, no. my job isn't to just diagnose or just do surgery and then leave the rest of the care to someone else. i "heal" patients just as much as you do. don't make judgments about my job when you don't have any experience with it and i won't make any about yours. it's that simple. also, considering that physicians (and independent practitioners) are ultimately responsible for signing off on all patient care, they're actually my patients.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jul 11, 2012

And it's my job to say amen sister.. great observation... and doesn't it suck?

Marisette, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2012

yes, it sucks. If a doctor makes a mistake, it's the nurse's responsibility to "correct " it. If a nurse erroneously follows the order, the nurse is fired. It's the nurses fault.

scurbro · Jul 11, 2012

I think the original poster hit a nerve, while trying to be funny probably had a lot of truth, and the PGY-2 Doctor did a good observation too. Mistakes goes both ways.

I can not say more then this. I am not a nurse yet. I was a patient in the ER a few weeks ago, and I can say the Doctor knew exactly what to give me, and was there monitoring the nurse while she was giving me the medication. Without either, I wouldn't have felt safe. Both are important to patients. Speaking from a patients point of view. Both are very needed, and most patients love both the nurses and the doctors.

Goobstress · Jul 11, 2012

We protect the patients first and foremost and prevent any harm that may come to them because of some blatant mistake a doctor may make and of course it is a thankless job. I said that to myself the other day when the doctor almost operated on the wrong site in the O.R suite while I was screaming at them because apparently no one assesses their patients anymore prior to coming to the O.R. they just look at their order and just say ok and mark a site without even talking to them before surgery. I was not thanked for keeping their asses out of court nor could they even look at me. I am a proud patient advocate.

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Jul 11, 2012

Three guys found a genie. The genie told them they could split the three wishes and each get one wish. The first guy said, "I want to be smart" and poof, the guy turned into an anesthesiologist. The second guy said, "I want to be ever smarter" and poof, the second guy turned into a neurosurgeon. The third guy said, "I want to be smarter than both of them" and poof, the third guy turned into an RN.

Poochiewoochie · Jul 11, 2012

When I had major cervical spine surgery it wasn't a nurse that healed me. It was a very caring Neurosurgeon who performed the surgery that made me feel better. As for the nurses that I encountered during my 2-day hospitalization the one that was assigned to me the first night was too busy to look in on me and she even said she felt like she was neglecting me. She did find the time to talk LOUDLY with other nurses at the nurses station about her weekend plans(this one nurse literally had a big mouth and there was no mistaken her voice) In the process she and the other nurses kept me awake the whole night. Then I had to deal with some snotty CNA the next day. The nurse I had that day was very nice and made up for the other two. I gave her a big hug and a "thank you" when I was discharged the next day.

Funny what a cervical collar can do for you. When I went to the ER after my surgery for unrelated problems I was treated better by the nurses then when I went last summer while in excruciating pain from my cervical spine problem. Even more amusing is being treated by some of the doctors who treated me as if I was a drug seeker last summer. The look on their faces was just priceless-I guess there REALLY was something wrong with me.

studentdrtobe · Jul 11, 2012

Funny what a cervical collar can do for you. When I went to the ER after my surgery for unrelated problems I was treated better by the nurses then when I went last summer while in excruciating pain from my cervical spine problem. Even more amusing is being treated by some of the doctors who treated me as if I was a drug seeker last summer. The look on their faces was just priceless-I guess there REALLY was something wrong with me.

That's a fair critique. Unfortunately, it's all too common to encounter drug seekers in the ED. I feel like it's to the point where patients are assumed to be drug seekers unless proven otherwise.

PMFB-RN, RN · Jul 11, 2012

this whole "we protect patient's from those stupid, mean doctors" mantra has probably been one of the most annoying things i've encountered in medical training so far.

*** i can see how it would be very annoying to those physicians who are actually caring and competent. some of the finest, most humane and wonderful people i have had the privlage to work with where physicians. however not all are like that, just like not all nurses are caring or competent. i don't very often encounter incompetent physicians. i do often encounter uncaring and apathetic physicians. thankfully they are the minority. same for nurses i encounter.

you'd be surprised how often we residents and attendings protect the patients from nursing errors.

*** i wouldn't. i am a full time rapid response nurse. i get the same calls from nurses the residents do. nothing would suprise me anymore. i spent most of my career working in very demanding and high speed units where only the best were tolerated. now i work with all the nurses and physicans in the hospital and have learned that not everyone in health care is up to the standard i had previously experienced.

i don't think i've gone a single day in the hospital this past year w/o fixing/preventing a mistake made by a nurse and this was fairly common during my two years of rotations during med school also (i'm a pgy-2 now). the number of nursing mistakes at every single hospital i've rotated through so far has far exceeded those made by physicians. the difference is that we doctor's only discuss this stuff in the physician's lounge

*** apperently you have never visited studentdoc.net. "physicians lounge"??? wow, where do you work? i thought they did away with those years ago. i haven't seen one in 10 years. i am sure that over a beer i can match you story for story rn vs md mistakes.

i feel like physicians are the only ones who get any training regarding working in a health-care team these days.

*** if you are now recieving such training i would say it's about time. i would also guess it's not universaly taught in medical schools. i still seem to see a lot of "i am captian of the ship and what i say goes". i see this particularly in foreign med school grads and my hospital is full of them.

yea, no. my job isn't to just diagnose or just do surgery and then leave the rest of the care to someone else.

*** ya, you are right. there are lots and lots of great physicians out there. it's the nature of the beast that those that are not great are talked about more than those who are. i work nights and resident come and go. they do a two week rotation where we work together then they are gone. it's the rns who provide continuity here. in a situation where a physician actually really gets to know the patient and feels ownership for their care it would be different. in my job they are my patients, the resident is a transient, here today, gone tomarrow.

Aeterna, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2012

I do agree, for the most part, but studentdrtobe makes some good points too. I think we all need to remember that we are all human and can make mistakes, especially when we work in very high-stress, fast-paced environments.

However, if you make a mistake, please fess up and admit it. I'm tired of people blaming others for their mistakes. For example, a doctor once got mad and blamed the nurse because the nurse missed an abnormal lab value and didn't tell the doc about it. Yes, the nurse should have seen the abnormal lab work and done something, but when the doctor rounded on the patient, why didn't he review the lab work and address it, too? But, no, he seemed to think reviewing lab work was solely the nurse's job, not his own.

That's a fair critique. Unfortunately, it's all too common to encounter drug seekers in the ED. I feel like it's to the point where patients are assumed to be drug seekers unless proven otherwise.

This is a prevalent problem in our ED, too, it seems. We once admitted a patient who had gone to the ED several times because of pain. They thought she was a drug seeker and so kept sending her back home. Then one day, someone thought to send her for some tests and found she was full of cancer, including mets to the bones. It was very sad. She didn't survive the year and she was only in her 40's or 50's (my memory is a big foggy on her age but she wasn't old).

anotherone, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2012

That's a fair critique. Unfortunately, it's all too common to encounter drug seekers in the ED. I feel like it's to the point where patients are assumed to be drug seekers unless proven otherwise.

Some drs/nurses where I work seem to operate this way. Everyone is a drug seeker to them. No one is really sick. If you come in with "abdominal pain" might as well come in asking for dilaudid. lol

Poochiewoochie · Jul 12, 2012

That's a fair critique. Unfortunately, it's all too common to encounter drug seekers in the ED. I feel like it's to the point where patients are assumed to be drug seekers unless proven otherwise.

Aren't people in the medical field supposed to treat patients without prejudice?

Oh, and it is also common practice for a nurse to lecture patients about not having insurance?

I no longer have pain-thankfully my surgery fixed that problem. I never became addicted to pain meds because they didn't help. But I feel sorry for the people who live in pain 24/7 and who have to depend on narcotic pain meds to get by. They are treated by pariahs just because the majority of the medical profession has lumped everyone who presents in pain as a "drug seeker".

I think it's hypocritical to say you are a "healer" and the patients advocate when you walk around with such a mindset. After last year I discovered that the only person who can advocate for me is me. I lost all faith in the medical system and it wasn't until my first appointment with my neurosurgeon that it was restored. So no, it wasn't a nurse who healed me physically or mentally. It was the kindness of a Neurosurgeon and his PA who felt sorry for me because I had suffered for so long and no one would help me. They treated me like a PERSON who really WAS in severe pain and deserved to be treated as such.