Nurses don't save lives....WHAT?

[ThePrincessBride]

Okay, so I'm a pre-nursing student who wants to work in the NICU someday. Well, a couple days ago a group of pre-Nursing students-myself included-talked about looking forward to Nursing school. I said that I couldn't wait to be a NICU nurse. One pre-nursing student replied, "But you'll have to watch babies die!" And I answered, "Yeah, but I'll be able to save babies' lives as well."

Another pre-Nursing student, who I find to be smug and abrasive, stated, "Nurses rarely save lives." ***** I wanted to slap him for making an ignorant statement.

So, is his statement true? Do Nurses "rarely" save lives? How many lives have YOU saved?

[kanzi monkey]

Nurses don't save lives the doctors do

This is true if by "doctors" you mean "Akira504" and if by "lives" you mean "a 3-year-old thread on an online forum"

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I just turned off my patient's PCA with a basal rate yesterday. Why? The first thing I noticed in the am was her slight change in mental status. Blood pressure was slowly creeping down and I had to turn her 02 up. BP was 100/50 and 02 sat was 93% on 3 L O2 when I turned off the pump. It was 93% on 2L, so I had turned it up and BP was generally in the high 120s-130s range. Patient was way too sleepy. She couldn't stay awake. On top of that, she was taking seroquel. After I turned it off (at the end of the shift), I text paged the PA that her dose needs a decrease given the patients vitals and mental status. The PCA was discontinued a couple minutes later. If someone wasn't at the beside (aka me and the night shift RN), this could have gone on all night.

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

Just joined, first post. fanning the flame for a cheap Friday night laugh,

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Thread has run its course....