Ok I know the title to this thread could be concieved as a little argumentative but I hope it opens a good discussion.
Where I work the doctors are treated like demi gods, without exception. They can make mistakes, be rude to the patient, treat the nursing staff like something the cat dragged in and they never seem to get into any trouble. They go through the hospital complaining about nursing staff.
As a nurse who has been trained to question practice, apply evidence based practice and believe nursing is a seperate profession to doctors, I find myself in a position of being a handmaiden to the Doctors, now I know my hospital cannot be unique-but Doctors write orders and Nurses carry out the orders period. If orders aren't clear because why should the doctors speak to the nurses, then nurses spend hours of each day searching out doctors to clarify order. then spend 10mins on the phone being spoken to like a child in the nastiest tone possible-the kind of tone you would reserve for a mass murderer.
I have spoken to the powers that be and I have firmly told offending doctors that I dont understand why I should be spoken to in such a manner to no avail After all doctors are demi-gods and nurses are trained monkeys carrying out orders- meaning Doctors bring in the 'business' nurses seem to be dispensable. In my hospital nurses are writen up for everything, if I have a problem with a different department then I told write them up- What happened to dealing with said problem and try tyo ensure it doesnt happen again through education and training. If we cant support each other as nurses then we have no chance against the establishment.
