Taking orders from a medical student

[platon20]

Friend of mine who is an RN on a hospitalist service complained to me the other day. A med student who is on their service came up to her and asked her if she could check an orthostatic BP and give a patient a dose of a new antibiotic (apparently the attending had already talked with the med student and approved it). She got pissed, stating that med students have no role "ordering" nurses to do anything and that only the head attending doctor can do that.

HOw do you guys feel about that? Obviously if the med student is rude or whatever thats a totally different story, but I told her that as long as the med student is not making an unreasonable request or yelling/barking at her then I think its part of the job.

[pebbles, BSN, RN]

Since you've now clarified that the attending had given the actual order, and the med student was just conveying it to you - Maybe this was an issue of how he spoke to you and interacted with you, rather than an issue of who can give orders?

Many med students just don't know how to talk to nurses. They are never taught about who we are and what we do. They learn how to interact with the nurses from watching senior doctors. I've seen many med students give nurses holier-than-thou attitude, much more so than the residents further up the chain. They believe the media and popular culture stereotype of "doctor tells the nurse what to do, and nurse does it". I don't think they can be blamed for not knowing about nurses. For being rude, yes. But generally, I tell them that I'm "on it", and communicate to them that I know how to do my job without them telling me. They usually go away after that.

[eligrace]

From what I understand, the new orders were written and approved by the attending? If so, then the student wasn't giving the order. He was, however, giving her a heads up that there was a STAT order to be done. If he was snotty, cocky or arrogant, well that will get worked out of him in time. Meanwhile, he did prevent her from being late on a STAT order that obviously wasn't aware of yet. Whether it was barked or just spoken, she should have thanked him for the heads up and went to verify the order.

The point to healthcare is working like a team. The goal is patient care. He may have been cocky, however she sounds a bit unprofessional. And he may not be writing orders now, however some day he will be. MS deserve some respect for the tremendous amount of work that they are doing to get to where the are. It is not exactly medicine for dummies!