"Nurses Don't Make Decisions"

ohmeowzer RN, RN · Mar 25, 2009

good heaven's of course nurses make decisions.. decisions on wether it is safe to give a blood pressure med, a change in pt's condition, if a pt maybe having a reaction to a medication , is it okay to give a pain med when a b/p is low or is it safe to give with a certain resp rate and lab values. ectra.. many many decisions.

you are dealing with people's lives here. this is not a job at walmart, you could kill someone. and this student is in school, and she thinks nurses don't make decisions? has she learned anything? what is wrong with her? she thinks it's okay to cheat, when nurses are taught to have intergrity and honesty? what kind of nurse (i say that loosely for her ) will she be? she is in for an eye opener.

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2009

Hi-

Maybe its just my grumpy nursing school, how much longer until December (when I graduate) attitude but my advice to you is that freakin' ignore this twit. Seriously.

The following are a few examples:

-Nurses must decide when to administer PRN medications.

-Nurses must decide which of two PRN medications to administer. For instance, your patient has morphine and oxycodone as PRNs for pain. Which do you administer? (ask the genius from your class!)

-Nurses must decide when to contact the physician due to a change in patient's condition.

-Nurses get phone calls from telemetry telling them that the patient is tachycardic (not the MD!) and they must decide if they are going to administer PRN meds as a result.

The following are some fun NCLEX style questions for further illustration:

A nurse working in a clinic is answering a telephone call from a patient on Lithium therapy. Which of following would cause the nurse to instruct the patient to immediately proceed to the nearest emergency room?

Which of the following actions should a nurse take FIRST when caring for a patient on a morphine drip with a respiratory rate of 11?

A nurse is caring for a patient receiving whole blood. Which of the following are signs of an infusion reaction? (This is life threatening!)

What should the nurse do FIRST in the above situation? (No, it isn't call the doctor.)

A nephrology patient has collapsed on his way out the door of the hospital. Which of the following actions should the nurse take first upon discovering the patient?

A patient on insulin therapy has a blood sugar of 12 at 4 a.m. Which of the following are appropriate actions for the nurse to take?

Does your friend know the answers? She better because she will be the first person at the bedside when this stuff goes down and it is expected that she will know the answer.

Good luck to you. Stay tough. Don't cheat because its not worth it and no one is going to help you with the NCLEX. Take heart. Nursing school will change her mind. lol

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · Mar 25, 2009

good heaven's of course nurses make decisions.. decisions on wether it is safe to give a blood pressure med, a change in pt's condition, if a pt maybe having a reaction to a medication , is it okay to give a pain med when a b/p is low or is it safe to give with a certain resp rate and lab values. ectra.. many many decisions.
you are dealing with people's lives here. this is not a job at walmart, you could kill someone. and this student is in school, and she thinks nurses don't make decisions? has she learned anything? what is wrong with her? she thinks it's okay to cheat, when nurses are taught to have intergrity and honesty? what kind of nurse (i say that loosely for her ) will she be? she is in for an eye opener.

Take heart. The silly little thing is just taking her prereqs! lol. She hasn't started nursing school yet.

I don't cheat. I also respect the fact that nurses are the most trusted profession. I present myself in clinical in a manner that reflects professionalism and personal responsibility.

diane227, LPN, RN · Mar 26, 2009

I feel very sorry for this young woman and her future patients because she is destine to make a lot of errors. Nurses are the last end point of checking everything before it is done to a patient. And I guarantee you that the person writing the orders is not always correct. She might want to know that "I was just following the doctors orders" is no longer a defense in a court of law. Nurses are responsible for the actions that they take. They have to have the knowledge and judgment to know how to make a decision and to catch something when it is wrong. They have to know how to assess a patient and how to take action when the patient status changes. All we do all day is make decisions. I hope this girl never takes care of me when I am sick. She will get a strong wake up call when she gets out on the floor. We had a new grad recently who was "just following doctors orders" and gave a dose of Dilaudid that was too high for the patient in question. They found him dead about an hour later. She got fired and hospital will be getting sued I'm sure. So tell your friend she better get on board before she starts her first job. She has a long way to go.

lpnflorida · Mar 26, 2009

hmm I might have been rude enough to say depending on how well I knew the person " Shut up until you know what you are talking about" or " That is an interesting comment. I suggest you tell that to one of your instructors and see what they think of that"

ohmeowzer RN, RN · Mar 26, 2009

Take heart. The silly little thing is just taking her prereqs! lol. She hasn't started nursing school yet.
I don't cheat. I also respect the fact that nurses are the most trusted profession. I present myself in clinical in a manner that reflects professionalism and personal responsibility.

whew i can breathe again !! i am so relieved !!

netglow, ASN, RN · Mar 26, 2009

Tell her that she better get used to the company of her own pea sized brain for the most part. The team thing isn't what she thinks it is. Of course she will find this out on her own real fast. :smackingf

tencat · Mar 26, 2009

If she's just in pre-reqs with that attitude, she is not gonna make it into nursing school....at least I hope not. What an idiot. No other word for it. She'll hang herself sooner or later.

APRN., DNP, RN, APRN, NP · Mar 26, 2009

This is why there are nursing boards that require passing before the State confers an RN license upon someone who thinks that the nursing profession is all about sitting back and waiting for the doc to tell the nurse what to do.

Sounds like your school mate has been watching too much TV. We live in a culture that portrays RN's as the doctors handmaidens that are sent for a cup of peppermint tea whilst the doc handily save's the patients life.

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · Mar 26, 2009

This is why there are nursing boards that require passing before the State confers an RN license upon someone who thinks that the nursing profession is all about sitting back and waiting for the doc to tell the nurse what to do.
Sounds like your school mate has been watching too much TV. We live in a culture that portrays RN's as the doctors handmaidens that are sent for a cup of peppermint tea whilst the doc handily save's the patients life.

You SAW an RN on a television medical drama? Where? I demand proof!

:chuckle

I see lots of doctors doing nursing jobs...

chevyv, BSN, RN · Mar 26, 2009

So, when a pt goes south, who calls the docs? Worse, who calls the code most of the time? Jeez, it's a good thing us nurses don't have to make that decision!!!!!!

When a pt is in pain and has 4 different prn's ordered, it's a good thing we don't have to make decisions regarding what med would be better for that pt!

Sounds like she's going to have a lot more to learn than some students!

At the local hospital, when the nurse has to call the doc, they are trained to make suggestions to the doc. Many nurses know what med would be best for the pt but some docs (especially on call) are clueless (no offense intended). The nurse makes a suggestion and I've never heard the doc disagree. Sounds like nurses make alot of decisions to me.