Knowledege of Nurses vs Doctors

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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?

Specializes in ER, Labor and Delivery, Infection Contro.

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.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I am wondering, why we want to even START a thread like this? Why must we compare ? It is so pointless to me.

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I am wondering, why we want to even START a thread like this? Why must we compare ? It is so pointless to me.

Because so many are living lives of quiet desperation! Me on the other hand, today made love, went to the beach and ate at McDonalds! :rotfl: Wait, I went to the beach first!

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

umm ok then zen. what ever floats the boat.....it all sounded good til the McDonald's part anyhow.....

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