As a nurse, how do you perceive that physicians feel toward you?

mindlor · Apr 28, 2011

For me, if a doc shows me disrespect I assure you, he/she does not get away with it, I always follow up with a discreet one on one smack down

linearthinker, DNP, RN · Apr 28, 2011

About me, or about nurses? AFIK, I am well respected by all my colleagues. I do think most physicians think nurses are, in general, undereducated. I agree with them.

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

I mostly feel that doctors appreciate our input as we spend the most time with patients. They also know that I don't waste their time unless I have something important to say. I think people tend to treat you as you treat them, with exceptions of course. I treat docs respectfully but frankly when it comes to patient care and that's what I expect back.

JacknSweetpea · Apr 28, 2011

I treat everyone the same. I don't care what others, including MDs, think of me. It's not so much high self-esteem as it is just having more important matters on my mind.

nurse.sandi · Apr 28, 2011

It was acceptable twenty years ago for a doctor to hang up on you, curse you, and yell at you. But it is not acceptable today. I wrote a doctor up in the hospital and he was reprimanded. Never let doctors push you around. My recommendation is to report it immediately to the charge nurse, the nursing supervisor, and your unit manager. Always put it in writing...leave a paper trail.

Mrs. SnowStormRN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

Ive worked with a few arrogant doctors and a few fantastic ones. It all depends on the individual. :) (as for the link in which many MDs were attacking the nurses based on the Presidents comments have personal problems, because despite why the President was praising nurses some of those comments by the MDs were uncalled for and downright mean. We are all part of a team and the MD should respect the nurse, what would they do without us? - but all MDs arent like this, because there are good and bad people there will be good and bad doctors, nurses, police officers, teachers, counselors, ministers, etc.....

platon20 · Apr 28, 2011

First of all, please forgive my naivety if I am totally off the mark here. I am beginning a nursing program in August, so I have no experience and not much knowledge on this issue.
So, I was googling some info for my research project (which is about the career of nursing) and came across this post on a forum:
forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-613963.html
WOW, was I shocked to read post after post belittling, degrading, insulting nurses, calling them whiners and even making sexist remarks such as, "they're women, they just need to be affirmed"
This was all in response to a comment made by President Obama back in 2009. This is a student doctor forum, so I am not sure if doctors who do graduate often feel this disrespect and disgust toward nurses.
Is there some sort of competition going on here? It seems like all of these student doctors possess a lot of bitterness and hatred toward nurses. Is this what is really going on in the professional health care setting? Again, please forgive me if this is totally distorted, but since I am going into the field, I would like to know what to expect.
Thanks in advance!

I dont think its fair to judge all doctors based on that one thread.

I will say that Obama picked a poor example to highlight the importance of nurses. He basically said that the doctors were irrelevant and only the nurses provided anything useful which is total crap. A kid w/ bacterial meningitis who receives the best nursing care in the world will die without a doctor's intervention. My point is you need both doctors and nurses. I think Obama was simply catering to his audience. If it were a group of doctors there, he would have gone on and on about how the doctor did the LP, diagnosed meningitis, and saved his daughter's life. My point is that he's a typical sellout politician who will say whatever he thinks makes the audience happy.

SilentfadesRPA · Apr 28, 2011

Remember something -- all of these bitter arrogant folks in that chat room were brave men sitting behind a computer protected by the anonimity of a screen name and probably were pale white, shriveled with fear, and saying something like the following -

"You think this order is wrong ? Ok, I will check with my resident, Mame and get right back to you" On the days when in they are in on the floors and a RN challenges their order.

Marc

jaimeandjules · Apr 28, 2011

I dont think its fair to judge all doctors based on that one thread.
I will say that Obama picked a poor example to highlight the importance of nurses. He basically said that the doctors were irrelevant and only the nurses provided anything useful which is total crap. A kid w/ bacterial meningitis who receives the best nursing care in the world will die without a doctor's intervention. My point is you need both doctors and nurses. I think Obama was simply catering to his audience. If it were a group of doctors there, he would have gone on and on about how the doctor did the LP, diagnosed meningitis, and saved his daughter's life. My point is that he's a typical sellout politician who will say whatever he thinks makes the audience happy.

I wasn't judging all doctors, I know that this is just a select few student doctors on this forum. I stated that I have no knowledge of the actual work environment so I really just want to know if this type of attitude is actually common in the professional setting.

I stumbled across this page by accident, and was shocked by the many ignorant comments. There were more than I cared or had time to read, but here are a few that caught my eye (via copy/paste)

"Poor little union nurses with their 2+ years of training, making $50/hour for holding hands and taking orders at a max of 36 hours per week with bonus and overtime for anything beyond that. And they have such high patient-to-nurse ratios! Let's rely on a lawyer to dictate health care policy because we haven't already been down this road."

"Nurses are the backbone eh? Perhaps he'd like to see what happens if nurses were picking the antibiotics to fight off the meningitis..........."

"Nurses are like that. they are women they have to constantly be affirmed."

"Guys. This is simple, naked political savvy. Nurses vote Democrat, whereas doctors are split 50/50 between the parties. Nurses are also more likely than doctors (VERY unfortunately) to be ethnic minorities and staunch supporters of Obama"

"If nurses work so hard at the hospital, why do their asses tend to grow along with their seniority? Seriously, like 80% of nursing students are these hot, little 20 somethings that I see. Then they become nurses and get bitchier and pear-shaped. I always joke with my friends that if you cut a nurse's leg off, you can tell how long shes been working by counting the rings."

The purpose of this thread is to ask people who are actually working as a nurse if they actually encounter or perceive this type of judgement from physicians. I am not trying to start a political debate. Thank you to all who answered informatively.

ktliz · Apr 28, 2011

I believe that website in particular is known for being populated by a few too many arrogant asshats. :)

orangepink, NP · Apr 28, 2011

WOW, was I shocked to read post after post belittling, degrading, insulting nurses, calling them whiners and even making sexist remarks such as, "they're women, they just need to be affirmed"

I checked your link. That was just one person so you can't take it personally. If 2+ people wrote that, then it's something else.

This was all in response to a comment made by President Obama back in 2009. This is a student doctor forum, so I am not sure if doctors who do graduate often feel this disrespect and disgust toward nurses.
Is there some sort of competition going on here? It seems like all of these student doctors possess a lot of bitterness and hatred toward nurses. Is this what is really going on in the professional health care setting? Again, please forgive me if this is totally distorted, but since I am going into the field, I would like to know what to expect.
Thanks in advance!

As for Obama's remarks, some of the posts in that thread said the right thing that Obama was just trying to play nice with the nurses. Still, he should have carefully thought out his comments. He made it sound like MDs don't care to begin with. My dad is a retired surgeon and my mom is retired pediatrician. I've seen them care way too much over their patients.

As for state of competition, I'd say that yes, I witnessed that in our unit. There's this new nurse, who also had a master's in psychology, and he has such an attitude problem that he felt that he should argue with all the residents about every minute detail in their order. I think it's all about one's perception.

Personally, I used to want to be a MD but after observing the life of a resident in our hospital, I'm just so glad to be a nurse. I observed surgeons yell at nurses and as one OR nurse told me, "try not to take it personally because they're just stressed. the minute the patient is under anesthesia, his/her life is in their hands so every second and every action counts."

And yes, some doctors do tend to have a huge.......ego (take your mind off the gutter! :eek: ) but then this kind of arrogance exists in every profession.

And since you mentioned that you are still a nursing student, my advice on how to gain their respect:

do your job....and do it well. no MD will overlook a hardworking, conscientious and meticulous nurse. Trust me.
do not gossip. if you can't say something nice, just be quiet.