WHAT DO NURSES DO? --help me respond to this question

sharann, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2007

So, did you do what the NM asked?

If you haven't , I would reconsider doing it.

If you do, make sure you do it on hospital time. Tell NM that you are staying an hour OT and sitting in the lounge(With a cup of java) and writing this "essay". Sounds like you are doing HER or HIS homework. Not cool unless you are their assistant.

Good luck to you!:)

sanctuary, BSN, MSN, RN · Aug 14, 2007

I remember the very first "Nurses Strike in San Francisco".... About the third or forth day that the nurses were on strike, a young fellow came up to the reporters on the front steps of (a large teaching hospital) and said, "Look, I don't care what the nurses want, I say we have to give it to them. I am a Cardiac Fellow, and I spend thirty minutes writing orders for very sick, unstable patients. Then I would leave, and the nurse would do what I wrote. Now I have to stay and do what I write, and it takes hours.! I don't care what they want, they deserve it, give it to them!" That was before the days of home video recording, but I will never forget it. Any doctor that does not know what nurses do should read their own orders. That what we do. Nurses are the grease in the cogs of the hospital/facility that houses the patient. We are not the laboratory cog, or the medical cog, or the kitchen cog, or the PT cog, or the RT cog, we are the grease that insures that all other cogs get the right patient, at the right time, in the right condition, without chewing the patient to shreds. We are not a cog in the care giving machine. We are the grease that keeps the machine moving.

RiaRN · Aug 14, 2007

Just to add fuel to the fire I enquired about what doctor asked this question of my NM.... it was the cheif of medicine! I cannot believe it! How can this hospital be magnet status? Doesn't that include doctor/nurse relationships? Yes it is a teaching hospital by the way. I am the newest one on my tour... I have no idea why i got myself into this. I think if anything it should be a floor effort and not placed on one person. My nurse manager should definelty be capable defending what we do if she feels she should, since she herself did it for so many years...and she is the one who has to make sure everyone is doing their job, following policy etc. The more I try to write, the more overwhelmed and infuriated I become. We shall see what happens... I do not want to use my day off to be writing something like this but in a way I want to stick it to them with something great. I want to defend the profession I worked so hard to be a part of.... I don't know... Thanks for all the comments! :0)

JennaRN1006 · Aug 15, 2007

Ok,I work in a city hospital as an RN in new york. It is so busy sometimes you don't have time to breathe. I was asked by my nurse manager to write something on what nurses do so that she could give it to the doctors. The doctors told her that they have no idea what a nurse does all day. PFFFT! Anyway I am overwhelmed and have started a list of what nurses do so that I can write something using it. I want to hear from other nurses who could possibly think of things that are slipping my mind at the moment. Its a big job to try and explain all the things we do on any given day, because every day is so different. I feel that the doctors need some good education ( maybe they'd show us an ounce of respect then? or is that wishful thinking?) Any help would be greatly appreciated. I want to write a really good response. Thanks in advance!
Heres a few things I jotted down real quickly:
Monitor vitals
assess for pain
teach
listen
Advocate for patients
determine if orders are complete/appropriate
communicate with all levels of hospital employees
(doctors, nurses, dieticians, social workers, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, , even nonlicenced personnel such as housekeeping, families, kitchen and phone/TV)
Assess for changes in patients condition
Assess for actual or potential problems with the patients health status or safety
Perform care for total care patients
Tasks like suctioning, trach care, feedings, blood transfusions, ekgs, drawing blood, start iv's, start Foleys, acquire samples for the lab, check orders and make changes accordingly, interpret cardiac strips, calculate I and o's
Solve problems, use their resources
Assist patients with their needs
Do discharges and admissions
Monitor for post surgical complications
protect patients
save money
prevent suffering
There are probably tons more so please respond!

OK, I think you have a great list going -- you are right on target! However, maybe I am just being cynical, but why isnt your NURSE manager, telling them -- she used to be a floor nurse too! she should know what her nurses do/dont AND for any doctor to be asking, she should be defending her nurses! AND for the doctor that had the nerve to ask -- PFFFT!!! they need to realize we are the ones that save their butts!! LOL I finished venting. lol

Great job with the list

leslie :-D · Aug 15, 2007

heck, wouldn't it be easier to have hr give him a job description?

leslie

MadisonsMomRN, BSN, RN · Aug 15, 2007

Oh geez! Are you serious? WE are the ones that take care of patients... not the doctor. We are the ones that keeps their a$$e$ out of the court room. We go behind them and clean up their errors and poor judgment.

I personally want the doctor to write nurses a list of what they do!!

Of course this doesn't apply to all doctors... but a lot of them. Let someone take nurses away and make the doctors take care of the patients... wonder what would happen!

reesern63, RN · Aug 15, 2007

Just to add fuel to the fire I enquired about what doctor asked this question of my NM.... it was the cheif of medicine! I cannot believe it! How can this hospital be magnet status? Doesn't that include doctor/nurse relationships? Yes it is a teaching hospital by the way. I am the newest one on my tour... I have no idea why i got myself into this. I think if anything it should be a floor effort and not placed on one person. My nurse manager should definelty be capable defending what we do if she feels she should, since she herself did it for so many years...and she is the one who has to make sure everyone is doing their job, following policy etc. The more I try to write, the more overwhelmed and infuriated I become. We shall see what happens... I do not want to use my day off to be writing something like this but in a way I want to stick it to them with something great. I want to defend the profession I worked so hard to be a part of.... I don't know... Thanks for all the comments! :0)

Your day off? I don't think so. Sorry, but you can write til the cows come home, it's not going to make a bit of difference. This is the chief of medicine and he doesn't get it? Really, you've got much better things to do with your time. Make your manager do the busywork.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Aug 15, 2007

Maybe Chief wanted an updated RN job description to include as orientation to new interns/residents.....

I'd send him a power point too

smk1, LPN · Aug 15, 2007

I like the shadow idea. Pair a doc up with a nurse for the day and make him shadow her for 12 hours. That should clear up the supposed confusion.

JuLyAnGeL · Aug 15, 2007

it is too simply nurses do wat they should do ..taking care of pateints + do wat doctors should do ... they are the important part of healthcare team .....

bluwavyhat · Aug 15, 2007

Your answers are awesome. I like being at the bedside while a md does a procedure on my patient that is where I learn the intrinsic idea behind the diagnosis related to their view, and intentions. I can read all the notes I want in a chart, but I think we learn best while our coworkers are in action.

:wink2:

deeDawntee, RN · Aug 17, 2007

So what is the status of your essay? Any feedback?