Are nurses smarter than resident physicians?

nicole109 · Mar 5, 2010

LOL--I just came from a very large teaching institution and have felt the same way on many many occasions, especially the entire month of July! Fortunately, I worked on a floor that had amazing relationships with all of our senior residents and attendings, so they knew which of the newbies to keep away from us. But what I learned from working with most of them was that a lot of their problem was that they had no confidence in their knowledge. They have to rotate from area to area every few months, and their brains are on overload--but we, as nurses are used to seeing the same type of patient over and over again--so we are thinking two steps ahead of them, they still need a minute or two to sit down and process. I think they need to hone their skills and become comfortable in their new environment, they are intimidated by us =)

Morning-glory · Mar 5, 2010

I had a second year onc resident that didn't know what versed was. He didn't know the doses for scopolamine or morphine were either. :idea:

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Mar 5, 2010

'Dissing residents is really unattractive and unfortunate. It's about on par with 'dissing student nurses for not knowing everything, IMO.

Residents are just operating within their roles and learning. If they were ready to practice medicine solo, they'd be attending physicians.

DuluthMike · Mar 5, 2010

This is really an inflammatory topic with a false dichotomy. Are first year nurses smarter than Attendings? We are all a health care team. If you encounter a resident who is not versed on a particular drug take the time to teach. Baby docs can benefit from seasoned nurses just as baby nurses can benefit from seasoned docs.

:)

DirtyBlackSocks · Mar 5, 2010

Being smart and having knowledge are two different things. One comes naturally, one comes with time and education.

In the long run, Doctors are certainly more knowledgeable than Nurses.

Students in training - especially in programs as intensive as residency - are only as knowledgeable as their instructors let them be.

I'd be willing to bet if you sat Doctors down with RN's who both have about 2-3 years experience and started asking random medical questions, the Doctors would come out on top.

msn10 · Mar 5, 2010

I had a very wise nursing professor in grad school and she said to me "If nurses think they are smarter than doctors, then they forgot what nursing is all about." Translation: We may have a working knowledge of each other's professions, but we have separate theories of practice. The more education I get in nursing, the more I understand that concept. We should complement each other like ying and yang instead of conflict and distain. Our patients will only benefit from the teamwork.

asfreeasabird · Mar 5, 2010

At our small rural hospital we do not have resident physician we have several nursing students 6days per week. I know that these nursing students need the experienced nurses to help them become experienced nurses. I would imagine it is similar with new resident physicians that you need to be careful how you handle them so they respect nurses when they become attending physicians. That is the easy thing to do, take the high road, help them have a good view of nurses. :yeah:

GilaRRT · Mar 5, 2010

'Dissing residents is really unattractive and unfortunate. It's about on par with 'dissing student nurses for not knowing everything, IMO.
Residents are just operating within their roles and learning. If they were ready to practice medicine solo, they'd be attending physicians.

Word.

GilaRRT · Mar 5, 2010

Okay so i work at a large teaching hospital/level one trauma facility. I rotated through the ED and a patient came in with suspected drug OD. We didn't know what the patient took but tried narcan and it didn't work. I suggested the use of Romazicon to the resident (assuming that if the patient ODed on benzos it would be worth a try) and he looked at me crazy. He had never heard of the drug. What????
Has anyone else found that the residents at your facility are clueless????

You must also understand utilising romazicon is playing Russian roulette with the patient. You give it to reverse an overdose to a person who has dependance, tolerance, and/or addiction pathology, you create a downward spiral of badness. Reverse the patient and cause them to go into status. What do you have to treat the seizures? Giving a benzo is not all the effective anymore and paralysing a patient may stop the outward signs of seizures, but will not do much to stop the seizure activity in the CNS.

In many cases, it is simply safer to intubate the patient and let them burn off the medications rather than reverse them with romazicon. Romazicon has very limited use in the clinical environment IMHO. I could see using it for a benzo naive patient during a procedure; however, not for an overdose of unknown history.

pennyaline · Mar 5, 2010

Okay so i work at a large teaching hospital/level one trauma facility. I rotated through the ED and a patient came in with suspected drug OD. We didn't know what the patient took but tried narcan and it didn't work. I suggested the use of Romazicon to the resident (assuming that if the patient ODed on benzos it would be worth a try) and he looked at me crazy. He had never heard of the drug. What????
Has anyone else found that the residents at your facility are clueless????

I have never heard of Romazicon. I must be a resident physician, too. What????

Back in the days when I worked in large metropolitan teaching hospitals, we found that the fresh July 1's were truly clueless but only for a little while. By the time they reached their second year, we couldn't get close to what they knew. It wasn't because anyone was smarter than anyone else, but because we provide care differently and thus are taught different skill sets.

JenniferSews · Mar 5, 2010

I hope I never forget what it's like to be new.