Knowledege of Nurses vs Doctors

I am in no way downplaying the education and knowledge of nurses. However, docs go to school for a total of 8 years plus their 4 year internship. I would have to say that generally docs have more knowledge. Now whether they use that knowledge appropriately or not, remains to be seen with a few of them.

Keep in mind that the nurse is the doc's eyes and ears. They do rely on us to spot problems in a timely manner so they can be dealt with.

hands down, mds have a much stronger knowledge base in treating the pathology.

hands down, nurses have a much stronger knowledge base in treating the whole patient.

MDs certainly have more knowledge in the treatment of diseases. I do think nurses have more knowledge in nursing matters and that tends to be a more hollistic view. Nursing overlaps with medicine, but there are parts of nursing in which doctors have very little or no experience. For example, when I worked L&D, you can bet your butt I knew more about non-pharmalogical pain relief methods than most docs, because I was the one with the woman for most of her labor. Same could be said for breastfeeding. Those are just 2 examples.

my best friend told me that he thinks doctors have more knowledge than nurses. of course i petitioned on the side of the nurse.

do you think (in a general sense) that most doctors are more knowledgeable than nurses? or that most nurses are more knowledgeable than doctors? or can something like this even be measured? or are there skills that are unique to each profession that make each just as strong?

i am going to agree with michelle. drs have more medical knowledge. nurses probably have more people skills though. at least from my standpoint as a patient. and i think nurses are very intelligent and have vast knowledge. but drs generally have more knowledge (intelligence will of course vary from individual regardless of job/schooling). saying that for routine matters and for general ob/gyn issues i prefer a np and cnm. it is because nurses rule!

Each profession and person has its/his/her own strengths and weaknesses. My big question is this.....why do physicians (generally speaking) PROTECT their young while nurses EAT their young?

It matters not if we both do our job.

Apples and oranges, they are comparing here.

Apples and oranges, they are comparing here.

yes, it really is.

Apples and oranges, they are comparing here.

I agree - apples vs. oranges. Why compare in the first place? It only serves to put someone down - whichever is believed to be "less knowledgeable".

My big question is this.....why do physicians (generally speaking) PROTECT their young while nurses EAT their young?

I think it has a lot to do with one-upmanship and the passive-aggressiveness that is so rampant within the profession. It comes from the population of nurses that would rather stick their noses up in the air as individuals than stand strong as a profession. Somehow they think that putting someone else down puffs them up in some way. Really, it just proves them to be the petty individuals that they are - meanwhile weakening the profession as a whole.

doctors have are far greater knowledge of medicine/pathology and physiology, however they knw very little about what goes into the actual job of nursing so if we are talking about general medical matters, the MD is going to have a greater knowledge base, when it comes to nursing the nurse obviously will.

i agree its like comparing apples and oranges. RN's have 2 to 4 years of training as compared to physicians that go through 8 years minimum of medical training. i think the answer is pretty obvious. i learn alot from docs that i wasn't taught in school and they learn alot of things about interventions from nurses that they were not taught, so you really can't compare the two.

NO brainer-Dr's.

But-there are skills in which nurses far exceed dr.'s because we as a rule do them and physician's do not i.e. IV starts (except anesthesiologists :), or as previously mentioned, labor positions etc. Dr's are trained to think in a different way then nurses. I have to admit-I've been on my "high horse" thinking that the nurses know more than the doctors-whew, have I got knocked down from the past few patients that have been difficult to diagnose-which is one big difference between dr's and nurses -as nurses, we arn't trained to diagnose-evan though we can make pretty educated guesses. But we nurses do have our knowledge, expertise and experience that goes hand in hand. I wonder if nurses use more emperical intuition and physicians use more logic-or is that a stereotype? I do know that we spend more time with patients, which gives us a better picture of the patient than the physician seeing the patient for 5-10 minutes and we do look at more "whole picture" i.e. spiritual, emotional, mental, cultural,physical etc.

It is a very interesting question-I am looking forward to more replies.