I have posted an article below that I found interesting, a surgeon seems to have a lot of issues with the fact that nurses are now trained in the university system and not under the old apprenticeship method. This article was published in The Australian on August 25, 2007. The Australian is a national newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and is distributed throughout Australia and other countries.
I thought about posting this thread under the Australian nursing forum but I thought that this article raises issues that are relevant to nurses around the world. These issues include the relationship between the nursing profession and the medical profession and the dominance of the medical discourse in health care. Please see read the article below and share your feedback. :)
Nurses could make life hell or heaven. If you had a shift of experienced and sensible nurses then life was easy. The alternative was the nurse straight out of university, who saw herself as the custodian of quality, the barometer of good care in our hospital system. The majority of these nurses were bureaucrats rather than carers. These nurses were the new breed, the norm.
In today’s university nursing educational scheme...
Oh doctor!! This is not the middle ages!! Nursing has changed because technology has changed, therefore, keeping alive patients that would have died several years ago. The patient that developes a bedsore in this day and age may be due to many factors other than a wrinkled bedsheet.
Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
I found this doctor rather full of himself. He apparently wants to go back to the good old days where nurses were his hand maidens. And they saved his butt on numerous occasions. I've worked with nurses who are four year graduates and I've worked with some residents who thought they were God's gift to humanity, and thought little of the nurses. And the four year nursing graduates I worked with knew their business. And could give a report to beat the band. And I have found two year graduates that think making rounds with the house staff is a waste of their valuable time. And then the night shift has to call the on duty residents, to get sleeping pill or MOM orders because the day shift didn't make rounds with them and ask for them on days. I bet he thinks he was a full fledged member of the medical team upon graduation of medical school. And thought little about the nurses.
Specializes in oncology, surgical stepdown, ACLS & OCN.
I found this doctor rather full of himself. He apparently wants to go back to the good old days where nurses were his hand maidens. And they saved his butt on numerous occasions. I've worked with nurses who are four year graduates and I've worked with some residents who thought they were God's gift to humanity, and thought little of the nurses. And the four year nursing graduates I worked with knew their business. And could give a report to beat the band. And I have found two year graduates that think making rounds with the house staff is a waste of their valuable time. And then the night shift has to call the on duty residents, to get sleeping pill or MOM orders because the day shift didn't make rounds with them and ask for them on days. I bet he thinks he was a full fledged member of the medical team upon graduation of medical school. And thought little about the nurses.
Woody:balloons:
I work night shift and getting sleeping pills and laxatives is minimal work,our patients have cancer and are very sick the medical ones any way.As for the surgical patients , they have more hope and get disgharged healthier. I work on different units, but most times i am on surgical telemetry. That doctor needs to join everyone in 2007, he is in the darkages of nursing and nurses are doing a lot more necessary things today. All of our patients need laxatives, because most of them are on narcotics. Iwent to an LPN hospital school and college for RN 2 year ADN program. I'm glad I had 1year in the hospital, because nurses really need the practice with Nasopharngeal suctioning, placing foley catheters, and starting IV's, also placing NG tubes.
I found the story rather well written and humorous. He was just telling his perspective of being a surgical resident. He didn't however tell of all of the stupid mistakes HE had made during that time. (I'm sure some of those nurses he mentioned had called him on the carpet for some of them) I could also write a book about all of the stupid, lazy and incompetent things I have seen residents do. It would probably be on the best sellers list.
Specializes in oncology, surgical stepdown, ACLS & OCN.
I work in a teaching hospital and believe me I have seen a lot of good and bad in
medical and surgical residents, it would behoove them to confer with nursing on some issues.I think newer and younger residents are more humble than the older residents and attending docs. I could also put a best seller on the shelves in bookstores.
Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
usual sour grapes
things like "They study behavioural sciences, pharmacology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and come out knowing very little about what it is to be a nurse in the truest sense of the word. "
or inother words nurses pose a threat to doctors ( of all grades) becasue they are actually educated in essential clinical knowledge to ensure that their patients are getting the best care ...
""Could you please come back and write up the notes about Mason Smith. You didn't write down what you did." It was the nurse from hell, back from her break.
"I will do it in the morning," I said, and hung up. "
the usual lack of respect for patients and colleagues displayed by medical staff
any junior or middle grade trying that in the hospital i work in would have an very interesting morning answering totheir consultant, the clinical director andthe risk management bods i beleive the phrase is 'interview without coffee'
"They are told that they, the nurses, are the controller of quality. No one tells them that they are actually the difference between life and death for some patients"
once again a complete failure to recognise and value themembers of the team who ACTUALLY spot the serious ill and/or deteriorating patient
as usual the usual " whgy am i not worshipped' rubbish the medicla profession and their swollen heads expect, there's a point reached especially by surgeons quite often when they get middle grade jobbs where they suddenly forget that the team is more than the sum of it;s parts .... generally the surgeons whose ego writes cheques their body can't cash are the ones that have problems with nursing staff
this surgeon has a valid point regarding care that is burned into nursing students caring after machines and paperwork and forgetting to look after wounds and turning and creases in bed sheets and avoidance of common problems that prolong hospital stays. i remember a situation at the hospital, alta bates in berkeley ca, when a nurse only paid attention to machine god at the bedside and reported the contractions to my wife 10 seconds after the initiation of one, what good this does i will never know?! anyway, there was this fine nurse, mary. who only spent 5 minutes at most in the room! she started the iv (my wife's a hard stick, deep veins!), helped my wife with at critical moments during the birthing process with hypnotic suggestions and telling my wife to go with what her body was telling her. nurse mary was old school and phenomenally wonderful. however, the primary nurse did catch the baby prior to the mds arrival! alta bates is a fine institution don't get me wrong. i was just very interested in the approach of these two nurses. this was before i ever became a nurse. so seeing these two differences as a husband of the patient was a big eye opener. nurse mary, i have not forgotten you and your wonderful treatment of may wife. god bless you dear!
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leslie :-D
11,191 Posts
overall, i think the surgeon's perspective held a lot of validity for the bedside nurse.
leslie