why can't the nurses give out medical advice here?

Nurses General Nursing

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is this a law or just a decision made by the admins. on this site alone? this really bugs me,when i try to call a hospital ER,they do the same thing,they say no advice over the phone. i am asking because a cardiologist said that i have 2 vessel disease with 80% occlusion. i do not want to get an angioplasty or bypass surgery. the cardiologist said that i will be at a great risk for heart attack and stroke and i want more medical opinions. even if alot of people tell me that i am at a greater risk for MI and stroke,i still do not want to have anything done because that is my choice.

Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.

If you aren't going to listen to the advice anyways what the **** is the point of asking for it in the first place?

TinyRNgrl

69 Posts

Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

If you are seeking more medical opinions and advice regarding your cardiac condition then you need to speak to your cardiologist or ask for a second opinion.

We do not give advice for a reason. One, we don't know you, your condition and we can't see you to assess you for starters nor is it in our scope of practice to diagnose you. Second there is this thing called a law suit. I spent $50,000 dollars for a license that allows me to be a nurse and I will not lose it for giving advice.

I work in the ER. We do not give advice over the phone. Why? you ask. Refer to what I just said. If you ask for advise, I give you said advise, you follow my advise and harm is done to you, you call the lawyer and say "but that nurse said I should", I lose my license. Understand?

So here is the only advice you will get from us nurse's on this website.

Call your cardiologist for advice.

misswhitney

503 Posts

Exactly. This board is made for NURSES, not for patients. We come here to seek clarity, to feel like we are not alone on issues, for support. We are not here to give out medical or legal advice to anyone because this is OUR board. That and we will be held liable for any advice we would give out. What if you made a decision based on something we said and then sued us for giving you the wrong or bad advice? Yeah, I'm not going to risk my license over something you should be discussing with your doctor.

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN

4 Articles; 7,907 Posts

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

There's no law preventing us from giving advice but as others have said, if we give you advice and things don't work out, it could be our license on the line. I could give you advice but when I lose my license as a result of a sue-happy patient--probably you--are you going to take care of me financially for the rest of my life? :)

Seriously, many healthcare providers--including myself--intelligently choose not to give out advice online, over the phone, etc., especially when we know nothing about you or had the chance to assess you. Even with my own family, more often than not I will defer them to their doctor.

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tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN

83 Articles; 5,923 Posts

Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

According to the Terms of Service of this site,

This is not a medical advice bulletin board

This is a board for nurses and nurses-to-be to discuss nursing issues. Please do not ask for any medical or nursing feedback related to a health situation that affects you, a family member, or someone that is not a patient under your care. This is not a free medical advice board. Please be aware that allnurses.com cannot be responsible for problems resulting from reliance on medical or nursing advice received here. If you have a medical problem, please seek attention from your health care provider.

Thread closed. If you have further questions regarding this, please post in the Help Desk.

rn/writer, RN

9 Articles; 4,168 Posts

is this a law or just a decision made by the admins. on this site alone? this really bugs me,when i try to call a hospital ER,they do the same thing,they say no advice over the phone. i am asking because a cardiologist said that i have 2 vessel disease with 80% occlusion. i do not want to get an angioplasty or bypass surgery. the cardiologist said that i will be at a great risk for heart attack and stroke and i want more medical opinions. even if alot of people tell me that i am at a greater risk for MI and stroke,i still do not want to have anything done because that is my choice.

We don't give medical advice on this site because doing so could endanger our readers.

This is an anonymous site. Readers don't know the credentials of the members or the validity of their opinions. Someone who isn't even a nurse could chime in like an expert because they know "a little something" about a disease or they looked it up on Wikipedia or their uncle had the same thing three years ago.

A second reason is that members don't know the person asking for advice. We don't know your history. We haven't looked at your labs or x-rays or CT scans or other test results. We haven't examined you. And we don't know how well you understand the information you're relaying to us. We can't set up your care. And we also have no mechanism for follow-up to monitor your progress and spot potential threats to your recovery.

The best thing to do is to talk to your doctor. Get a second opinion for anything major. Ask about all of your options and find out about the success rate for each possibility. Take meds, if ordered, and do whatever else the doctor tells you to do. Keep follow-up appointments so that you and your doc can see if your condition is worsening.

Many insurance companies have medical people on staff that can help with a consultation. They can't tell you what to do, but they can help you put your questions into words and decide if a third or even a fourth opinion might be needed. They can also help you find docs that may be skilled in doing newly developed techniques that are less invasive and have better results. If your insurance company does this, make use of their resources.

One additional reason we don't dispense medical advice is the great responsibility involved. If this were a lay person's message board or a topic-based site where the common denominator is a particular disease or procedure, few people would expect to receive expert opinions. But because this is a nursing board, we are perceived to have a heightened level of responsibility toward our readers. Because we cannot vouch for each members credentials and abilities, we choose not to allow the giving of medical advice. We don't want people to say, "Someone on allnurses.com said I should do this and now I have a more serious problem."

When someone asks for medical advice, we direct them to people in real life who can get to know them, take detailed individual and family history, do a thorough examination, order labs and other tests, make recommendations based on the combined information, help the patient obtain a second or third opinion, arrange whatever care needs to take place, and follow up on the results. This can only be done face to face with other human beings.

To trust anonymous web sources with something as important as your health is to take a real chance that something will be misunderstood or missed entirely or that wrong advice will be given. Yes, the Internet can supply a wealth of information and help you formulate the questions you want to ask. But you need to ask those questions of someone who will get to know your history and examine you in person.

We here at AN can understand the anxiety people have when they are looking for answers, but we can only direct you to the people who can give you qualified assistance.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN

102 Articles; 27,612 Posts

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
i want more medical opinions.
Do you have health insurance? If so, many major health insurance companies have 'advice nurses' that are just a phone call away. You can call the advice hotline, be connected with a nurse, and ask as many questions as you can think of. I wish you the best of luck!
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NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN

10 Articles; 18,296 Posts

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

check out websites with reliable healthcare information to educate yourself about your condition: coronary artery disease

[color=#0082c8]medline plus hosted by u.s. national library of medicine and national institutes of health

coronary heart disease

american heart association: hearthub for patients

hearthub® is the american heart association's patient portal for information, tools and resources about cardiovascular disease and stroke

coronary artery disease - mayoclinic.com

emedicinehealth: coronary heart disease

cleveland clinic: understanding coronary artery disease

80% blockage of a vessel means that blood flow is reduced to 20%. think how hard it is to drink through a bent straw with a kink in it or tiny hole how much harder it is to get rest liquid out cup ---that's what happening to your heart. if blockage not relieved, heart tissue will die, heart attack may occur along with death. it's always patient choice to accept or reject medical and nursing advice given. hope you find the info you desire to make an informed decision about your health and life.

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