Is it just me, or are nurses pushy?

Nurses General Nursing

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Despite being a nursing student, I've don't have complete confidence in the medical establishment and always question any treatment I receive and, as someone in their right mind, would expect to be asked if I want a treatment. Yet I notice during clinicals that nurses often don't ask or even explain what they're doing. They just sort of barge into a room and start doing procedures and making assumptions about what the patient wants. This is disturbing to me and I think that some patients may not even be aware that they have a right to know what's going on and to refuse any treatment. Do nurses do this because it makes their job easier or because patients really just want to leave all that to the nurses' and doctors' judgment?

Specializes in Critical Care.
Back to the first question.

Do I think nurses are pushy.

Yes.

Assertiveness to the uninitiated can be seen as 'pushy'. Am I pushy? At times, YES I AM.

It's called: Patient Advocacy.

To the extent that I am 'pushy' as a nurse: I'm dang proud of it.

I'll give you an example: pt recently w/ a stage III on her bottom just likes to lay on her left side. Every 2nd hour, she was turned on her right side for two hours. She's a 'screamer', but only on that right side. Do I think that she was more uncomfortable on her left side? Yes. But, If I let her just lay on her right side all the time as she wished, it wouldn't take long before she was ALWAYS on her right side, or on a bedsore on her coccyx or left side and then, she'd ALWAYS be uncomfortable except that the least uncomfortable position would NOW be that left side that she complained about for two hours at a time.

Was a 'pushy' about it. Yes. And evertime she accused me of being 'mean' to her: I reminded her that while I WAS indeed maybe being 'mean', it was by far less mean than allowing her 'favorite' side to become another bedsore.

~faith,

Timothy.

"I know from times when I have been a patient, I wanted to feel like I was being guided through the obstacle course by someone who was "in charge" in a respectful way."

I guess I'm just projecting onto patients my own feelings. Maybe I'm a control freak (heh heh), but I don't want to put anyone else in charge of anything as important as my health. (And I absolutely want to know what the plumber's doing, too!)

I have some basic distrust of the medical system and, frankly, what I see doesn't make me feel more confident. I've seen people walk into the hospital for back surgery who are still there a year later with a drug-resistant infection. And guess what, the surgery didn't even fix their back!

Anyway, I often hear nurses say "You have to" have something or other done. What does that mean? Does it mean, it's necessary for your health and recovery or does it mean that's what the doctor wrote down and I'm too busy to deal with a resistant patient (and I do know that nurses really are too busy, it's not an excuse)? Some patients might think it means I don't have the ability to say no. I know I felt this way when I went to the hospital to deliver and the nurse told me I "had to" have a routine hep lock that I didn't want or need (in my opinion and the opinon of plenty of experts). Looking back, what was she going to do if I said no, call security while I'm in transition? But I was too stupid and confused them to figure it out.

I'm not blaming or judging nurses, I'm just trying to understand what's going on (and some of the posts here are really helping me understand the dynamic).

id be interested in what "experts" believed a hep lock was not needed for a delivery - personally having cross trained to ob and seen everything that can go wrong will which made me not want to ever see ob again - and the things that went wrong were on perfectly normal healthy no trouble pregnacies ( small hospital we did not do high or even moderate risk deliveries) and that hep lock saved lives - the time it could take to put one in especially in an emergent situation could mean the diff between life and death - i dont know a single ob nurse that wold say a hep lock is not needed period - kinda like car ins - we buy it and hope we never have to use it. just my opinion.

id be interested in what "experts" believed a hep lock was not needed for a delivery - personally having cross trained to ob and seen everything that can go wrong will which made me not want to ever see ob again - and the things that went wrong were on perfectly normal healthy no trouble pregnacies ( small hospital we did not do high or even moderate risk deliveries) and that hep lock saved lives - the time it could take to put one in especially in an emergent situation could mean the diff between life and death - i dont know a single ob nurse that wold say a hep lock is not needed period - kinda like car ins - we buy it and hope we never have to use it. just my opinion.

:bowingpur

:bowingpur

i wasnt being mean i really would llike to know who the experts were and what their rationale is that a heplock would not be good duringh any delivery.

i wasnt being mean i really would llike to know who the experts were and what their rationale is that a heplock would not be good duringh any delivery.

I don't think anyone would say a hep lock was not "good" but many would say it was not necessary for a low-risk birth. Perhaps I am wrong about this, but I believe that hep locks are not routine at many birthing centers and are almost never used during home birth. Of course you may not consider certified nurse midwives experts...

I don't think anyone would say a hep lock was not "good" but many would say it was not necessary for a low-risk birth. Perhaps I am wrong about this, but I believe that hep locks are not routine at many birthing centers and are almost never used during home birth. Of course you may not consider certified nurse midwives experts...

iwould consider midwifes experts - of course i am sure they do home births but i have never seen one in our area - my SIL is usingone but they do it in the hosppital not at home.

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