I was at a Walgreens pharmacy waiting with my mom for her scripts to be filled. An elderly woman, wearing a pink ball cap and sparce, thinned gray hair approached the counter. I could hear her conversation without even trying to listen. She asked the pharmacist what she should cleanse a small cut with. The pharmacist told her to use saline and pointed to were it was so she could buy some.
As she passed me, I did not know the pharmacist was making his way behind her, I politely said, "ma'am, I wasn't trying to ease drop, but you can just use soap and water and save some money, I'm a Nurse."
The pharmacist came right up behind me, moved in front of my face and said, "I don't think she asked you, she asked me" as he swayed that neck left to right.
Well, I was pissed at how rude he was, I went and talked to the manager, then went back to the counter to pick up scripts.
He came to the register and stood behind the cashier and said, "Just so you know, I have a PhD, and I know more you do" My jaw dropped and told him his PhD sure didn't teach him how to treat others. He kept arguing with me and mom. Finally, I had to walk away after he told me, "My name is Dr. Peebles " after telling him I was going to contact coporate and file a complaint.
Uggg, I know I was sticking my nose out but he didn't have to act so hateful
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Oversimplification of others' roles in order to feel better about oneself.
I concur. Other peoples' jobs have the tendency to appear easy to those who are on the outside looking in.
It's similar to hospital visitors who think nursing staff is doing nothing if they're seated behind a computer, even though the nurses may be charting and communicating with providers. People with the factory worker mentality will always think nurses are 'doing nothing' if no physical labor is readily apparent.
Has no one wondered how a woman who made it to the milestone of thinning gray hair wouldn't have thought of soap and water herself? What is she, ignorant with no life experience?
Maybe she went in asking for a solution to clean her wound other than soap and water. Maybe OP's unsolicited advice was patronizing. Maybe the woman would have thought the pharmacist was patronizing had he said to just use soap and water. I know I would have thought so.. Y"eah I know about soap and water, I didn't make it to 60-70-80 by being stupid, but I'm asking for a product (for whatever reason is my own business)."
OP and others want to think this was some altruistic super helpful action, I just think it was completely unnecessary and out of line.
He is a A hole!! Soap and water is fine for a cut. And so is saline ! Just Bc he has his Ph.D. Doesn't mean crap. Remember even in the hospital setting we save Doctors butts Bc if they didn't have us they would be screwed !! [emoji108][emoji817][emoji111]ï¸
I don't understand the need to bring others down while trying to hype yourself.
The bottom line is the OP gave advice that was was not asked of her and got her panties in a bunch because the pharmacist took offense to her sticking her nose where it didn't belong. She came on here hoping for kudos and praises from the people here to sooth her hurt feelings and found out most people find what she did to be out of line.
She needs to mind her own business and grow a thicker skin.
ITA w/the PP about dispensing advice when not on the clock and not being asked, and especially about not revealing that you are a nurse in public.
As for Mr. Peebles, sounds like he has a bit of a Napoleon complex going on there. What a doll.
Identifying yourself as a nurse in public and providing any advice or service takes away any good Samaritan benefits and opens you to liability because you are held to a higher standard.
I don't understand the need to bring others down while trying to hype yourself.
The bottom line is the OP gave advice that was was not asked of her and got her panties in a bunch because the pharmacist took offense to her sticking her nose where it didn't belong. She came on here hoping for kudos and praises from the people here to sooth her hurt feelings and found out most people find what she did to be out of line.
She needs to mind her own business and grow a thicker skin.
Clearly you haven't read any of my responses. I asked no questions in my original post. I did not post this for kuddos. In fact, the opposite. I shared this so I could get feedback and confirm how I already felt after this happened.
Where did I say anything to " bring down othere"?
There is no reason to be rude. You have no idea how thick my skin is because you don't know me or what I've been through.
I'll AGAIN thank all of those who have offered sound constructive feedback in a non-demeaning manner.
Identifying yourself as a nurse in public and providing any advice or service takes away any good Samaritan benefits and opens you to liability because you are held to a higher standard.
I agree, hence why I stated that I agreed with the previous posters who recommend against doing so.
Specializes in Med/Surg, OR, Peds, Patient Education.
I concur. Other peoples' jobs have the tendency to appear easy to those who are on the outside looking in.
It's similar to hospital visitors who think nursing staff is doing nothing if they're seated behind a computer, even though the nurses may be charting and communicating with providers. People with the factory worker mentality will always think nurses are 'doing nothing' if no physical labor is readily apparent.
I am not entirely sure what a "factory worker mentality" means. "Factory workers," are few and far between today. I have had factory workers as patients, and family members of patients who were factory workers. They were amazed at all we, as nurses do or did, in my case. Our work is varied and sometimes there is "physical labor," along with charting and the many other aspects of our profession. We are the patients' advocate. We must have good rapport with a doctors, physical therapists, discharge planners, VNA, hospice or dietitians. I never had a "factory worker" think that I did "nothing."
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I am not entirely sure what a "factory worker mentality" means. "Factory workers," are few and far between today. I have had factory workers as patients, and family members of patients who were factory workers.
I was a factory worker at a paper mill from 2001 to 2004, prior to becoming a nurse. My mother was a factory worker for 25 years.
Anyhow, the factory worker mentality entails thinking that a person is doing nothing if he/she is not moving around much or not engaged in apparent physical labor. When I worked at the factory, there was the notion among my coworkers that the 'suits' in the office (a.k.a. managers and engineers) did nothing useful, whereas the workers on the floor did all the 'real work.'
The concept of knowledge work was not considered 'real work' by my coworkers at the factory who toiled on the floors and worked on the machines.
Anyhow, as a floor nurse I have had a handful of people assume I was doing nothing when I was seated behind the nurses station. I suppose it is different strokes for different folks, but thanks for your feedback.
No, I'm not just talking about "conversational etiquette," I think it's highly unprofessional to provide unsolicited healthcare advice, which is technically treatment. This scenario (tap water vs. saline to clean a minor wound) is pretty tame, but where do you draw the line? Is it okay to insert yourself, unasked, into the professional relationship between this pharmacist and client and make other kinds of suggestions counter to the pharmacist's instructions? If one observes people on the street with some kind of health problem, do you expect nurses to just walk up and start telling the person what to do, 24/7? What happens when there is some kind of negative outcome?
Again, as noted earlier in the thread, if you're at work, and you're providing education and advice within the scope of your practice as part of doing your job for a client with whom you have an existing professional relationship, and someone else just passing by inserts her/himself into the conversation, uninvited, and says, "I'm a different kind of health professional, and you can disregard MunoRN's instructions and do XYZ instead," do you consider that appropriate professional behavior on the part of the other individual?
It's probably not a conversation I'd interject into either, but like other social mores that's not automatically equivalent to nursing legal limitations. I work with nurse who believe it's unprofessional for female nurses to wear scrub pants, that doesn't mean it should apply universally.
Yes, but we do all that within the context of an existing professional relationship. We don't just randomly interfere in people's lives. And, as a matter of fact, generalist RNs and LPNs don't give "medical advice" -- they give nursing advice, and reinforce education and advice already provided by a physician, but they definitely do not give medical advice. Again, this particular scenario (saline vs. tap water) is pretty mild, but people are going to find themselves in hot water and outside the scope of their practice pretty quick once they start down that road.
I would agree that the standards are different outside of an "official" nurse patient relationship, but they aren't stricter in that situation, actually the opposite.
The role of LPN's in patient education is a little different, but RN's are expected to provide "medical advice", according to my Nurse Practice Act, it's a requirement, and it's pretty clear that it is primarily up to the RN to develop and implement the teaching plan, the only role of a physician that's mentioned is that we "utilize medical diagnoses" to develop a plan, in other words if the physician diagnoses a patient with new CHF we then provide CHF teaching, we don't wait for the MD to do the teaching then just repeat what they said later.
I'm still not sure where in that algorithm you feel it says that, I'm guessing you saw this: "c. are there agency/facility policies and procedures in place which outline performance criteria for the activity? " and missed that is one of three ways of establishing scope. Here is the full section:
4. Is the act or practice consistent with the scope of practice based on one of the following factors?
a. standards of practice of a national nursing organization;
b. supporting data from nursing literature and research;
c. are there agency/facility policies and procedures in place which outline performance criteria for the activity?
(Bolding mine) Facility policy and procedures is just one way of establishing a nurse's scope and is not required.
TheCommuter, BSN, RN
102 Articles; 27,612 Posts
It's similar to hospital visitors who think nursing staff is doing nothing if they're seated behind a computer, even though the nurses may be charting and communicating with providers. People with the factory worker mentality will always think nurses are 'doing nothing' if no physical labor is readily apparent.