who is the Boss?

[mdslabod]

FOR as long as I have been a nurse (28 years)

it seems like doctors have a lot of power over us.

They yell at us in front of patients. Report us if we speak our minds or say anything out of line.

Who is our boss? and why do we continue to take this abuse?

Input appreciated.

MDS

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

When I am threatened by someone who wants to speak with my boss or write me up I have always replied "please do, I would like to hear what someone else would think about this situation."

That has always been a quick wet blanket on their wrath, as they think about their own actions once I agree. I have also written an MD up- and I think that an atmosphere where residents are demanding papers to write nurses up calls for a little more support of the nurses, and tell the docs to get their own damn paperwork- don't get it for them.

[LilgirlRN, ADN, RN]

I am very lucky in that I work in a non-teaching facility, I work in the ER with same 6 docs day in and day out, we have to get along. The medical director of the ER says "a good nurse will save you every time". We prove this on a daily basis, like when one of the docs ordered an insulin drip at 35 units an hour (he didn't realize it wa a 1:1 drip). I am not saying that we do not disagree, there have been times when I have been asked to do things outside my scope of nursing and the doc has pitched a fit and then realized I was right for not doing as he asked. As others have said, we are members of the "team", when we work together, the patient has a better outcome.