"helping" versus "interfering"

[jme]

i occasionally work with a nurse who (like me) is a relatively new nurse and started working on our med-surg unit about a year ago. she answers my patients' call-lights--which is fine--and then, instead of informing me that they need pain meds or whatever, she takes it to them herself, then tells me later. on more than one occasion, she has taken it upon herself to do "patient teaching" that completely contradicts whatever i've said to the patient, and generally seems to believe that she needs to run interference between my patients and me. this sort of controlling behavior is surprising because she comes across as very sweet and naive. my trouble is that because of this sweetness-and-light demeanor, i might come across as an ingrate because i want her to back off a bit.

don't get me wrong: i am a BIG believer in helping each other out. i do minor tasks to assist my colleagues (emptying urinals, getting a warm blankie, etc.). i would never, however, administer a medication to someone else's patient without first clearing it with the nurse. the other night, she was on her way into one of my patients' rooms with an opiate pain med that the physician had just d/c'd and replaced with toradol. i only learned she was going to give it to him because i literally bumped into her as she was on her way out of the med room, meds in hand.

any ideas here? i'm pretty forthright, usually--this one just has me stumped.