Nurses working harder than doctors?

Nurses General Nursing

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I came to conlusion that although I respect (the doctor's knowledge and ultimate decision making) that nurses work harder in physical and mental way.Sure the doctors are on the call 24 (not talking about surgeons cause they sure work hard) but we nurses coordinate everything,watch patients 24,have to recognize changes in health status,as well as know pathophysiology/diseases,deal with ongoing issues.

I'm suprised you guys defend doctors,while majority of them look down on nurses...

Im just a nursing student & have had doctors be nice to me which is not their job at all. There have been more then a few who were chatty & informative including the surgeons. The few that are abrupt are just that abrupt as opposed to just plain nasty. The abrupt ones usually act that way towards nurses, surg techs, other doctors, etc.

I think a lot of times doctors hear so much talking from everyone that it turns into Charlie Brown "wha wha wha" which might explain those odd & confused looks many of them seem to get.

I've seen MDs that are "OWNED" especially cardiac & neuro surgeons by certain nurses & surg techs and cannot & will not function smoothly without them. So not all of them have a holier then thou attitude. More then a few will openly admit they dont like it when certain nurses are off for the day.

I take it all w/a grain of salt. Everyone is overworked & overtired nurses, mds, cnas, etc.

Unless they are overtly rude such as calling people names, humilating them, or throwing scalpels why sweat the small stuff.

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Specializes in PACU, ED.

Hekate, you make some very good points. I'm sure your husband also knows and respects nurses who give good nursing care. I had an odd call last week from a surgeon checking on his patient. He'd ordered labs and a NS bolus in PACU. When he called I was able to report the labs had been drawn, waiting results, and 600ml of the liter bolus was in. I also gave a concise status on the pt. I'm sure he'd probably been burned in the past with stat orders that were completed hours later. He thanked me for the report.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
I'm suprised you guys defend doctors,while majority of them look down on nurses...

Quite a few of us know how to collaborate with MDs and they aren't our enemy.

Some of us have worked with MD's for many years, so we're only giving our experience. In my experience I can't say that nurses work harder than docs, or that the majority of them look down on nurses. Some docs work very hard, others don't, just as you have some lazy backstabbing catty nurses who eat their young. Can't generalize like that about a population of folks.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

That's an image I could live without. Mature discussion we have going on here. Sorry I jumped in.

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That is the funniest & nastiest analogy I've heard in months........but true.

Hmmm this is making all nursing students look bad, maybe this is somewhat age & attitude dependant. I've been in an area of the workforce for about 8 years that makes hospital politics & drama look like childs play so I really am not internalizing this like some students. I work for Satan & his minions now, the craziest doc or nurse in the world is a sweet & charming being compared to that. True life experiences especially a hard life predisposes some to be ok w/the real world of nursing. The medical field always has one edge that no other career has....individual licenses to move to a different location at free will, that is nearly impossible in all other fields, since most certs or licenses go through the actual companies as opposed to a regulatory board.

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I will admit I definitely have no love-fest with most doctors. My hospital seems to foster an environment that encourages physicians to treat nurses poorly (or at least tolerate it well). Many nurses who come to my hospital from different areas can't BELIEVE how badly the docs here behave. I've never worked in any other hospital, so I do not know.

However, I agree with whoever said that them being jerks does not correlate to them not working hard. I think the majority of them (in my experience) are jerks, but hard working jerks just the same. I also think the majority of them seem very, very unhappy.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I worked at one hospital where docs got away with verbally abusing the RNs on a daily basis. Now I work at another hospital where its more "collaborative" between the docs and RNs and there is more respect from the docs and let me say that while I have run into a couple snarky residents there, they are otherwise great and I'd never work anywhere else again.

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Specializes in L&D, Nsy/NICU, Med/Surg, UM, CM.

Many of my best friends are physicians: OB/GYN, Hospitalists, Surgeons and Internists. I'm married to an Anesthesiologist. They ALL work long and hard hours.

I feel that we all work hard in our own areas of specialty, whether an MD, RN, LPN, CNA etc. Comparing our work to theirs is like comparing apples to oranges and futile.

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Specializes in SICU,CVICU,ER,PACU.
Hekate, you make some very good points. I'm sure your husband also knows and respects nurses who give good nursing care. I had an odd call last week from a surgeon checking on his patient. He'd ordered labs and a NS bolus in PACU. When he called I was able to report the labs had been drawn, waiting results, and 600ml of the liter bolus was in. I also gave a concise status on the pt. I'm sure he'd probably been burned in the past with stat orders that were completed hours later. He thanked me for the report.

It is sad to think that the Surgeon you talked to was so surprised by your good care!!!

I find that there is a lot information lost in translation when a patient is transferred from one area to another, and sometimes it is critical information and sometimes it is pure laziness...

I have had a very good relationship with most of the Docs I have worked with, but it does happen to run into one careless or very arrogant doc every now and then.

One of my Heart-cath patient was being sent home to come back after the week-end to undergo a CABG. He was hypoxemic in the Recovery Room, with a sat of 86% on 5L of O2.90% on 50% venti mask. the patient had no (known) Hx of COPD.

The cardiologist kept telling me that it was because of his coronaries...and to discharge the patient home once I had pulled the fem sheath and made sure no bleeding occurred:banghead: I kept the pt on oxygen and waited until I could allow him to seat up to see if his oxygenation was at all related to his supine position. Once sitting up, no improvement.

I called the cardiologist again, and he literally sent me to hell before hanging up on me .After talking to the patient and his wife, I found out that he was suffering from polycythemia, but didn't know its cause.The guy looked cyanotic. I called the cardiologist one AGAIN . He called me names, yelled, hung up again.

I called him back and said: "before you start yelling or hang up, i just want to ask for an ICU consult under your name". "If you stop calling me, then yes, ask for the damn consult if it makes you feel better!" was his answer:D. The intensivist attending came quickly, saw the patient and 10 minutes later,had written ICU admitting orders . I learned the next day that the patient's sat dropped to 60% in the middle of the night and had to be intubated.The CABG was postponed until the patient was more stable... I don't know what happened beyond that point.

It was one rude cardiologist, but he was the exception to the rule in that group of cath-lab docs. Of course that cardiologist never thanked me for saving his butt...but the intensivist did in no uncertain terms!(he was furious at the cardiologist!)

I was being the annoying nurse,but his being an ass didn't make him are right :p

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Specializes in ICU, CVICU.

I hate ganging up against one poster- so I will say that if anyone spends any amount of time on that dreaded other forum (SDN)- it certainly seems like docs have nothing but contempt for nurses. Also, I know I had my fair share of run-ins with ******** docs when I was a nursing student. So, I just hope that the OP is not getting too discouraged with the profession of nursing and hangs in there. I hope that she will continue on in nursing and have more pleasant interactions with the docs.

Ok- enough from me, I'm about to be on after a sleepless night and a long vacation :)

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
I hate ganging up against one poster- so I will say that if anyone spends any amount of time on that dreaded other forum (SDN)- it certainly seems like docs have nothing but contempt for nurses. Also, I know I had my fair share of run-ins with ******** docs when I was a nursing student. So, I just hope that the OP is not getting too discouraged with the profession of nursing and hangs in there. I hope that she will continue on in nursing and have more pleasant interactions with the docs.

Ok- enough from me, I'm about to be on after a sleepless night and a long vacation :)

and visa versa....if any of them spend any time here, they would feel that nurses have nothing but contempt for doctors. I work for teaching hospitals and the way nurses treat the med students and interns is embarrasing sometimes.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

We are by no means perfect and neither are doctors. I think there are some of us and some of them who just have bad moments. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt except for that one doc I used to work with....

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