are doctors more valued then nurses?

Of course Physicians are more valued than nurses. Without the docs there would be no nurses. It is a fact of life that the more education you have, the more $$$ and less "work" you have to do. I don't mean to say that docs don't work - just that there is always a hierarchy, and docs are at the top.

From the feedback I get w/my patients, the answer would be NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! But from the feedback I see coming from administration, I would SAY YES, with a DOUBT! How's that for an answer. it is the TRUTH as far as I CAN SEE!

Hi everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!It's been crazy lately and haven't had time to pee. Doctors are more VALUED but we are much more VALUABLE. It's a status issue. They do get paid a lot more (for the most part) but I do know of one particular system that moonlighting attendings get only $17 an hour (not a typo). They also have a VERY high overhead. Most are paying off loans that we cannot even fathom. New PCP's starting out are at the mercy of patients who book appointments and don't show or late cancel. Our newest doc in our practice sometimes only sees 4 patients all day because he's still building his practice but gets stuck with everyone else's sick patients. The specialists make much more money and have much more prestige but again, there is another 2 years of training to be able to be certified. ==Gomer--although your analysis of the ration of M/F MD's /Nurses is correct in general, it does not take into consideration the different areas of specialty. Most Primary Care Physicians (in the Boston area anyway) are now WOMEN. The men are opting for the specialties and also (in our area anyway) it is very difficult to get people to book with male primary care docs. In certain areas of nursing, there are more MALES than females. I have been in ICU's staffed only by men. I see 4-6 patients during the course of my day personally for nurse appointments. This is in addition to processing 30-40 prescriptions a day, managing the flow of patients for 3 doctors, handling all triage calls, and doing all followup lab correspondence. I often spend 1/2 hour with each patient booked in to see me but get paid by the hour while the doc's bill insurance for the nurse/doc. visit. They have to order everything I do so are ultimately responsible for my actions and accordingly, they get paid for it. Whatever I do for the patients that THEY see, gets added to THEIR visit's encounter form and they are able to bill for treatments that I do. Doesn't seem fair, but that's the way it is.

I think doctors are more valued by administration and hospitals because they bring in money, whereas nurses are seen as expenses.

I also believe that because nursing is still, and most likely always will be, a female profession, and because we still don't own nor do we make decisions regarding our practice nor are we standardized, will never we make any headway.

Neon,

There were nurses before MDs and there will be nurses after MDs are gone. Nursing occurs even in absence of physicians. Nursing has potential to be so much more important than medicine. We just haven't been utilized that well and too many of us have been convinced that we are nothing without MDs/suits/Adms.

I am an onco/hospice nurse and trust me, we can help what the MDs can't.

Originally posted by caroladybelle

Neon,

There were nurses before MDs and there will be nurses after MDs are gone. Nursing occurs even in absence of physicians. Nursing has potential to be so much more important than medicine. We just haven't been utilized that well and too many of us have been convinced that we are nothing without MDs/suits/Adms.

I am an onco/hospice nurse and trust me, we can help what the MDs can't.

A word of thanks to all you hospice nurses out there. My Dad has late stage protate cancer (fairly stable at the moment, thankfully) and was in severe pain. His hospice nurse figured out a med combo that has relieved the pain immensely. I cannot thank them enough.

Have nurses been around before physicians? I'm not sure. I think what's important is to realize that we have separate -- though related -- areas of expertise. (Remember from your nursing theory classes? (Yes, the classes we all hated ;-). Medicine deals more with anatomy, we deal more with physiology). Of course we can do things physicians can't. We need to remember that more often, and remind each other of it.

Jim Huffman, RN

http://www.NetworkforNurses.com

I thought that it was a GIVEN

Are docs more valued than nurses? An unequivocal YES.

Are docs more TRUSTED than nurses? An unequivocal NO.

Very confusing, the general public. They don't value us, but they seem to trust us.......

NurseRatchett, your comment about MD specialties is interesting. I agree that I see more female primary care docs, however, even in the wonderful world of MD's there is a pecking order. Primary care docs make less than orthopods...and most orthopods are men. Women, as a whole, are not valued as much as men by most societies...it doesn't matter what job they hold.

Brown Rice,

Ditto with another post. Nurses are underpaid because it's predominantly women. Doctors are valued more due to the prestige and maleness of the profession.

Fergus51,

Trust me most travel nurses do not make $35/hr. My first travel assignment was $21/hr. 40k as a new grad? I wish. Not in my former neck of the woods. Peace.

Value is in the eye of the beholder.

our hospital will spend more to recruit one doctor than on all nursing recruitment. After all, people go to the hospital for expensive services provided or should I say ordered by the doctor. They make the money for the hospital.

Nurses are the necessary evil. Hospitals can not function without nurses, but we are all expense and in some cases treated as such.

Doctors are tied to a nurses value. Sounds funny but I think it is true.

I have worked with Docs who treat nurses as dust under thier feet and the managment follows the leed.

I have also worked with Docs that got the concept that in some cases all that stands between them and a huge malpractice suit is a NURSE, balancing condition, treatment, meds, etc. (after all, a nurse may have 8 patients and a doctor may have 100+ beteen clinic, in house, consults, etc on any given day).

When the doctors recognized our value to them, they put the pressure on the hospital to keep the nurses happy, well educated and continuing to protect them from error.

I have seen doctors go to bat for nurses in wages, hours, etc. The reason may be totally selfish, if you were the MD would you rather keep the experienced nurses in your specialty or have all new grads or floaters monitoring your patients? You have never seen anything as angry as a surgean who just realized that the unit was staffed with new grads and OB nurses floated to the unit. The surgeans banded together, cut back elective surgery, and put the pressure on to give bonuses and incentives to get experienced nurses in the specialty, on the floor. (not to belittle OB nurses or new grads. New grads need guidance from experienced nurses. Specialty nurses are highly effective in thier specialty, and I think we all realize that bieng floated to unfamiliar territory puts patients and our license at risk)

When the doctors value the nurse judgment, experience and performance the hospital is forced to take a bite in the bottom line and treat the nurses better, or risk MDs changing practice setting costing them revenue.

It is just the flow of power set up by $$$$.

admin. -> MDs -> nurses : nurses -> MDs -> admin. After all, money maskes the world go round. Doesn't it?

peter