Attitudes towards RN's and lack of respect

withasmilelpn · Oct 15, 2007

Since I have been coming on the net for the past nine years I have found:
1. Patients attacking nurses.
2. Patient's families attacking nurses.
3. Patients being too demanding.
4. Patients and their families asking for services that are not considered part of nursing,i.e. offer for family members.
5. Physicians being disrespectful.
6. Physicians being demeaning.
7. Physicians ignoring nurses observations and request.
8. Physicians not knowing what they are doing.
9. Nurses ignoring patients.
10.Nurses not giving pain medication often enough because they are afraid:
a. the patient is an addict.
b. they will make the patient an addict.
c. the patient doesn't meet the nurse's standard for a patient having pain.
d. the patient is asking for pain medication too soon and the nurse just ignores the patient's request.
11. Nurses being too rough in their physical care of a patient.
12. Nurses causing unwarranted or unnecessary pain.
13. Nurses not explain to a patient or family what they are about to do, if it will be painful, how they will manage the pain.
14. Nurses, usually out of the hearing but not always, of the patient, making fun of a patient or family-yes this really does happen.
My observations are based on more then twenty five years of working experience and about twenty years as a patient. Health care is a complex organization, where physicians, nurses, patients and families sometimes act badly. As a nurse, I have been the recipient of bad physician and patient attitudes and actions. And as a patient I have been the recipient of poor care from nurses and physicians. And one time, I threated to slap a nurse if she did not stop poking me painfully on her third attempt to start an IV. And even though I have been bashed for making the threat, I would do it again because I had asked her nice twice to stop. I had my rights as a patient ignored. Everyone has a right to be respected, be they a nurse, a physician, a patient, a family.
Woody:balloons:

Sorry for the way you were treated, however when my 4 year old needed blood work they had a hard time getting it and she never cried or said a word, just watched fascinated. (Which is why I always like my peds patients, they are just tougher than adults and much more resiliant sp?!) And I'm also never going to say it is ok to threaten someone or physically abuse them unless you happen to be one of my little demented old people, who can be forgiven because they just don't know any better.

In general though, when my Mom c/o the care she got post a fx hip from 'Nursing', I persisted questioning her until she admitted that only one nurse was the problem (@ one instance), and her nursing care was in fact very good. So I'm sure it takes only one negative experience to skew some people's views about nursing.

jojotoo, RN · Oct 15, 2007

One of my teachers told me at the beginning of RN school that MORE TIMES THEN NOT, YOU WILL BE TELLING THE DOCTORS WHAT TO DO.

No, you will NOT be "telling the doctors what to do".

I beg to differ with ebear. I am telling doctors what to do (what needs to be done, what's been missed, what meds a patient needs). I don't have to tell every doctor everything, but it happens pretty frequently. Of course, I do try to tell them in a non-bossy way - to start with. But as my patient's advocate, it's up to me to make sure my patient gets what they need - one way or another.

This is one of the hardest things that I try to teach new nurses. If an MD gives an order, you better understand why that order was given and what the ramifications are of you carrying it out. And if the MD doesn't give an order that should have been given, that needs to be addressed too. We're WAY past the time of just saying "Yes, doctor" and doing what we were told to do. (Was there really ever such a time?)