informing pt...nurse for medical procedure

[2008el]

i recently had to do a minor surgury... no one explained to me what was going on or what i should take before or after surgury. i think they knew i was a nures.. so maybe they took if for granted thay i knew what to do! as a nurses i believe is very important to inform anyone for any medical treatment.. thanks God i knew what i was supposed to do and not to do... what if i didn't knew.... what if i tood ASA for days before the procedure... no one told me anything! that is bad!

[TakeTwoAspirin, MSN, RN, APRN]

Although I do agree that sometimes other people in healthcare assume we know more than we actually do (especially if it's something outside of our own specialty), I have to say that as a patient we should be our own best advocate.

If there is something that you don't understand about your own care, then you should ask and keep asking until you get an answer. Why on earth would you go through an elective procedure without having answers to questions that you clearly believe are important, and then complain about it afterwards?

You can be sure that I would have refused to sign the releases until I had all of my questions answered.