Nurses working harder than doctors?

leslie :-D · Mar 21, 2009

i rolled my eyes, reading the title of this thread.

kinda like some cna's insisting they work harder than us nurses.

all a matter of perception, i guess...

leslie

lovehospital · Mar 21, 2009

i rolled my eyes, reading the title of this thread.
kinda like some cna's insisting they work harder than us nurses.
all a matter of perception, i guess...
leslie

Actually,you brought up an excellent point,I do think that CNAs work harder than nurses (physically I mean)

flightnurse2b, LPN · Mar 21, 2009

although nursing is very physically and mentally trying, i wouldn't want to be a doctor for all the tea in china, honestly. the responsibility hanging over their heads is huge.

my uncle is a doctor, a double board certified internist and orthopaedic surgeon.... i had always wanted to be a doctor and i followed him around for a day.

doctors don't just admit pts to the hospital, they usually work during the day in a practice or a hospital group. so not only do they see patients all day or perform surgeries all day, we as a nurse are not ultimately responsible for their patients, although we proivde their bedside care-- the doctor is responsible for each and everyone of their patients.

so at 0300, you page dr. smith because your patient is CTD. they may have just finished seeing their office patients or done 12 hours of surgeries and then rounded on their patients in the hospital, and you may not have been the first person tonight to page them... now they have to actually remember who this patient is and what they want to do with them, and sometimes even get out of bed to meet them in the ICU. yes, there may be a hospitalist or intern if you work at a large facility to come and see them, but that admitting doctor is still tied to the responsibility for that patient.

no thanks.

elkpark · Mar 21, 2009

Actually,you brought up an excellent point,I do think that CNAs work harder than nurses (physically I mean)

They do, in many (most?) cases -- but the RNs have a lot more responsibility and decision-making (inc. being resonsible for the CNAs' performance). If you're talking purely about physical labor, then, yes, most CNAs work "harder" than nurses, and most nurses work "harder" than physicians. The way the world works in general is that, the more education you have, the less hard physical labor and the more "thinking" work you do ...

The other posters are v. correct, also, about how "hard" physicians work. My dad was an anesthesiologist, and, the whole time I was growing up, he went to the hospital early every morning and gave anesthesia for the scheduled cases from 7-3. Then, he made rounds on all his cases for the next day and followed up on his post-op folks, and got home around 5-5:30 pm. It was v. common for him to get a call during the evening that he was needed for an emergency surgery, and he would have to go back into the hospital for a few hours. He would come home and (finally) go to bed, and it was not uncommon for him to get another call in the middle of the night and have to return to the hospital for another emergency surgery (this was in a smallish town and he was the only anesthesiologist). He would get home in the wee hours of the AM, finally go back to bed, and still have to get up again at the regular time in the AM to do it all again ... He lived like that for YEARS, until some other anesthesiologists finally moved to the area. As far as I'm concerned, that certainly counts as "working hard."

labcat01, BSN, RN · Mar 21, 2009

I work very hard for the 13 hours that I'm at the hospital- but then I get to go home and shake it off. The docs I know work so incredibly hard and they work long hours all the time. I wouldn't trade my job/paycheck for theirs at all. That's a big reason why I went to nursing school and not medical school.

fiveofpeep · Mar 21, 2009

Where do you get all these controversial topics Love hospital?

I think docs and nurses both work extremely hard...just different types of work. I chose nursing because I love that kind of work (being with your patient) and would never want to be a physician because I dont like that kind of work. Im sure they feel similarly and thats ok. Everyone is different.

Being in the other's shoes would be a good experience for expierence's sake though.

SharonH, RN · Mar 21, 2009

I'm looking forward to the day when we are not constantly comparing ourselves to physicians.

d!gger · Mar 21, 2009

They're different jobs with different responsibilities. There are times on my unit when the MD gives me that "Glad you do what you do" look. And there are times when I'm glad I'm not walking in the MD's moccassins. After witnessing what the MDs I work with do, I'm even reconsidering whether or not I eventually want to be an NP. Especially in light of the ongoing fiscal belt-tightening/bloodletting (npi) in public healthcare.

And yeah, I too look forward to the brighter day when we stop comparing ourselves to physicians.

dig

krisjazzer13 · Mar 21, 2009

I was just thinking the other day how I would never want to be an intern or resident at my hospital...their hours are absolutely crazy, they are sleep-deprived and they can have incredibly busy nights that run them ragged. I had an excellent resident covering my patient team last night and was lucky that she was so efficient...some are too sleep-deprived to even make rational patient decisions, which is very dangerous. I work my ass off for 3 days a week, but these docs are usually at the hospital much more frequently and deal with just as much **** (although in different form)

RN1982 · Mar 21, 2009

I agree with Sharon. Can't people just get over it and stop comparing professions. Like the previous poster said, they are two entirely different jobs with different responsibilities. I think I work equally as hard as any physcian and likewise.

Sarcolemma · Mar 21, 2009

Actually,you brought up an excellent point,I do think that CNAs work harder than nurses (physically I mean)

so to sum up what you've said so far, as far as jobs being physically demanding........

CNA > RN > MD?

:chuckle Tell that to a resident at the end of a 30 hour shift at a big teaching hospital.

I was a CNA for 6 years in LTC, 2 or 3 different nursing homes.....once I worked 16 back to back 16 hour shifts, and still I gotta say, that work was a piece of cake compared to ICU nursing, which in turn is easier than being an SRNA (in my honest, subjective opinion)

Docs have insane schedules. I wouldn't wish a surgeons life on anyone. Or a residents. Residents are underpaid and overworked.

there's something to be said for putting your time in and then punching out at the end of the day.

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Mar 21, 2009

A lot of docs I work with seem very harried and overwhelmed. They work hard, too.