How do family members treat NP's?

Trauma Columnist · Jul 2, 2008

I feel like that too - lol! Nope - just because I'm an APN doesn't mean I get treated differently than an RN. However, I try to have answers for the family because for the most part they are just frustrated with lack of info and too many caregivers. So, if you give them a break, most people respond well. .

Plus, my saving grace is that I usually have more time to deal with the families than staff that have several other patients to deal with.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Jul 2, 2008

I'm a new RN (7 months) and I am currently going to school to become an Adult Acute and Critical Care NP. I become frustrated at work because I am new and I don't have all the answers. Sometimes family members run me down and it's exhausting. My question is, as an NP, what do you do when you don't have the answers? Are there times when you don't know what to do? How do family members treat you? I can't stand the fact that I feel like a waitress sometimes instead of someone who should be respected.

What you're describing is probably a very common problem in hospital settings which is breakdown in communication between the healthcare team. Since nurses are at the forefront of patient care on a daily basis, we carry the weight of having to answer patient and family questions and oftentimes we don't have the answers because the medical plan of care was not communicated to us clearly. So a patient would ask why a test is being ordered and all we can say is that the physician ordered it, or a patient would ask why a medication is being given and we couldn't figure out ourselves what we are treating with this medication. It's almost like we have to ask the physician to come up with the right answer most of the time.

I'm not necessarily smarter now as a NP but I have the advantage of being part of the medical decision making with physicians. And by rounding daily with the attending surgeon and the intensivist, I can fully understand what the direction is for the daily plan of care including what medications, treatments, tests, and labs are needed for the day and why. It SHOULD be the medical team's responsibility to communicate this with nursing staff either during rounds or after the actual orders are written. In return, nurses should communicate this information to each other during end of shift report. In some hospital units, you see physicians see the patient, write orders, and leave without talking to any nursing staff. I think this kind of medical practice is what is driving nurses to be frustrated in their work and feel like a "glorified server". Some nurses refer to it as the "stupidification" of nursing - as if we are not smart enough to know this information.

Maybe what would work for you is to try being more aggressive when the medical team arrives for rounds. Ask specific questions that you want to know about your patient, insist on being told what the plan is for the day, and do your own reading based on the information the medical team gives you. I know that it's probably hard to find all the time to do this in a busy medical unit but I think that will make you more prepared to answer patient and family questions.