Being a american nurse

TonyaM73, ASN, RN · May 18, 2011

Much depends on the personality of the person you are talking to. If for example the doctor is one that values nursing input, then you would talk to the doctor almost like a peer and he/she you. If you have a doctor that has a superiority complex, then you bite your lip and let him inform you about your patient and the care that should be given. I think that the doctor, nurse and aid should all work as a TEAM for the best patient care and that everyone knows the direction the patient care is going.

As far as families you never know what preconceved notions they have of nurses are. Some people treat you with a lot of respect for the knowledge that you have and the job that you do, others treat you like a glorified maid. ("you need to come in my room right now and bring me another glass of water!") You never know what the day will hold and what views your patients have.

We are not suppost to give out test results either. The doctor does that and answers questions regarding those tests. If the doctor has already given the result though, then the nurse can further educate the patient and their families about the disease process.

Basically I tell people that your nurse is your last line of defence. We make sure that the doctors are informed about and change in status. We have to interpret any doctor's order and make sure that it goes to the right department, i.e. radiology, pharmacy, etc. Once the orders go to the right department, we have to make sure that department carries out the order in a timely fashion. We need to look at results, whether that is a blood pressure or a pro-BNP and make decisions on what we need to do for this patient while the doctor is being called. (Of course this is a limited ability until the doctor make new orders, but if a pro-BNP came back very high and the pt is on 150cc of fluid per hour, I would imediately turn off the fluid and make sure the doctor is aware of the amount of fluid this patient has been receiving and if he would like to discontinue said fluid.)

This is just a small view of the role of a nurse in the US. How is it different in

France?

Thank you for the interesting conversation starter.

crystal777 · May 18, 2011

I agree with the previous post. I feel like the nursing profession is respected. It really depends on where you work as to how family, staff, and doctors treat you. Each hospital has its own culture. I currently work at a hospital that values nurses and will have a nurse of excellent. At my last hospital, I never really felt appreciated. Each doctor is different. If the doctor has experience as a nurse they are so much more likely to listen to you. As far as test results such as X-rays or CT scans, we are not allowed to give any diagnoses. I do sometimes tell my patients this and then I may say that the test did not find anything, but the doctor will have the last. You have to be careful with how to approach some doctors. Some have a big ego and think they know everything!

MeliLook · May 18, 2011

Thanks for yours answer :redpinkhe

In France, Nurses are not recognized.

The nurse week don't exist.

They often perceived as handmaids especially by doctors.

When there are bad relationship betwen nurse and nurse's aide, it is often the nurse's aides who have the upper hand.

Nurses have to run behind doctors to have a prescriptions.

The salary is small: 1500 euros when you start.

Nurse works 35 hours in one week. Lots of nurse chose to work

Study during three years in nursing school ( public or private).

In france, only one way for become a nurse.

For to be accepted by nurse school, you have to pass an evaluation. (The nurse number is limited by medical politic.)

Study is free: nurses student pay only registration taxe (300 euros) and medical assurance (250 euros). If you're bursary, don't pay nothing.

Study composed in two part : theories and pratice. Training period is very important: 10 mouth.

How many patients takes care the nurse?

jordan nurse · May 18, 2011

iam a male nurse from jordan i have an experience one year on surgery ward >

on our job we meet alot of personality some are kind and appreciate the nurses and some and superior looking few doctors listen to nurse notes

socialy it is very bad to be a nurse they consider you a maid for the pt and doctors i decided to quit from nuring and study again maths

ondahill · May 18, 2011

Our nurses in the US hospital I work have long hours due to so much documentation. 12 hr shifts and some floors have mandatory overtime. If we call a doctor about a patient we must give them the current situation, history on their patient, what is wrong with the patient now and then tell them what we think should be done. This is great for our seasoned on the ball nurses. Of course, a nurse fresh out of school might not have such great insight yet. The doctors treat us with much respect as a rule, but we too have the "PITA" docs. ( Pain in the A..) if you catch my drift. If a doctor nurse or anyone treats you with disrespect you should call them on their behavior in hopes that it will change. As for the families they rely on the nurses more than the doctors. I have nursed for almost 20 yrs and I love it. It has changed more in the last 2 yrs than I can believe. My children are nurses and I have a daughter in law that is in nursing school and she thinks she is going to change the world. She will soon see the whole picture and be in the real world. The only thing I don't like about nursing is the top management is too heavy and we need more hands to take care of our patients. And the endless amount of documentation. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So overwhelming. Didn't mean to get so long, but this is the truth whole truth and .......

Good luck to you,

chiandre · May 18, 2011

i love practicing in the us. for me, with nursing, the sky is the limit. when i compare nursing practice in us to other countries, i count my blessings. nursing is recognized as a profession. we consider ourselves equal to other healthcare professionals. collectively and individually, nurses have power. recently, obama nominated major general patricia d. horoho, chief of the us army nurse corps, to be the 43rd army surgeon general. wow! i agree that there are many areas in us nursing practice that need to be changed. however, with research, we are definitely making changes. us nurses are finding ways to work smarter so that their patients can reap the best benefits.

TonyaM73, ASN, RN · May 19, 2011

On a Medical/Surgical floor where I work we have 5-7 patients at any given time. If you start off with 6 patients and discharge 1, you will almost always get an admission before the end of the day. It is a very high turn over floor.

I agree with the above that for the most part nurses are respected by the doctors and the general public, but you always have some that think of us as hand maidens and just someone to clean up the messes.

jmqphd · May 19, 2011

You ask challenging and interesting questions. I agree with the other respondents. Generally, American culture pretty much holds nurses in high regard. But on the other hand, not many people understand what nurses do.

I believe fewer and fewer doctors see nurses (RN's anyway) as "hand-maidens". (We quickly and politely tell doctors in training that they can throw soiled dressings and disposable wrappings etc. in the trash can as well as we can. I almost never have doctors getting huffy because I don't clean up after them.) In fact, MD-RN interactions are much less adversarial than they used to be (I graduated in 1971.) Over time, I have watched MD's who are abusive to nurses eventually run into difficulty with administration, or their partners and they don't last. They are gone... and I'm still here.

"Quality" is the buzz word now and multiple regulating agencies, governmental and otherwise are seemingly in competition with each other to see who can promulgate the most burdensome requirements. And this means we are documenting absolutely everything. And it's always the RN who gets the extra paperwork to do. The rule is... "if it isn't documented, it was never done."

In the United States (you have probably heard) we are undergoing a huge national debate about how health care will be reimbursed. Whatever the eventual outcome, it is clear that the demands on hospitals are going up, and the income is going down. So many (MANY!) patients never pay, but the hospitals have to treat them anyway. Consequently, institutions are not expanding their nursing staffs. Nurses who would have otherwise retired, (my generation) are hanging onto their jobs in fear of losing the income stream. So it's getting tough for new graduates to enter the market. When our national economy recovers (God willing) the job opportunities for nurses will improve.

On the whole, I think American nurses have it pretty good.

MeliLook · May 19, 2011

I'm happy to have interresting answers:hug:

Your answers are more interesting than everything information that I found on internet.

For a nurse which are the most important values ?

In a service of geriatric, how much patient take care the nurse ?

In France, a nurse take care 45-90 patients in Old people's home.

Have you committee of ethique?

Bortaz, MSN, RN · May 19, 2011

What you tolerate, you condone.