I am an RN studying to be a Physician Assistant. I have been training in the medical model for PA school after my nursing school education. I’ve essentially sat in on the training of both MDs and RNs and can tell you stereotypes are engrained on both sides.
Doctors are groomed to expect to have nurses “bugging” them for orders, calling them with useless and non-important updates, and causing unnecessary drama.
Nurses are equipped with armor to defend the patient, fight for patient safety, and defend themselves around the doctors. It’s almost like they are taught to fight the bullies who write things for them to do…instead of focusing on orders to be carried out for patient care.
Nurses are also blamed for patient deterioration and act defensively. Many younger nurses come out of nursing school with the mindset of notifying the physician of ANY patient changes—even though we are taught to notify MDs when patient status changes and necessitates new orders. Doctors don’t care—and are annoyed by a phone call informing them--if you just hung a new bag of IV fluids. (That is, unless the patient has fluid restrictions or is receiving a bolus).
However, if nurses don’t notify doctors about seemingly benign changes and the patient starts deteriorating, he/she is held responsible for the outcome. Nurses get blamed for everything!
Nursing needs to change because the weight of responsibility weighs heavier than that of any other profession. This pressure is insane—and is what made me get out of nursing.
But, I think both sides are wrong to perpetuate these stereotypes, prejudices, and behaviors.
As a PA with a nursing background, I will do my best to bridge communication between doctors and nurses on the same team. I hope to one day be a nursing instructor, and my main objective will be to shape our future nurses to embrace nursing as a science, especially when reporting to oncoming nurses and when updating physicians. We all care about our patients and need to understand the scope of practice of each team member. Maybe a cross-training rotation would help rectify this conflict (med students work a nursing shift--minus the administration of meds only licensed professionals can give; and nursing students shadow MDs).
What are your thoughts?
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June 10th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Just curious: why did you choose the PA path as opposed to NP?
Feel free to read my blog, A Nurse Practitioner’s View (www.npview.blogspot.com).
Good luck!
June 10th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I just finished nursing school and I am a little green. I also will not be able to work as a nurse this year for a year due to the military. I think that the aforementioned has a little to do with this subject because I really look for ward to doing what I set out to do be a nurse. I value that and I can’t do it for the next year. Many people who (for lack of a fitting term)I will call ignorant, think that the next thing after nursing school is medical school. They don’t believe that there is life beyond the ADN or BSN, I plan to get my DNP or PhD in Nursing which ever suits me best. I think that if people want to make things better, work in the field that you chose stand by it and improve it from the inside out. I have family that are have finished med school and yea for them, but I am tired of the “what now, med school?” comments. And it makes me feel really good to tell them ‘No I plan to be a Doctor of Nursing Practice’ and see their face as if the BSN was the last stop for me. Good luck with PA school, but that only gets you a master degree at best. Not for sake of degree but for freedom and independence I choose to peruse a higher ed in Nursing and prove to myself and people that nurses are not the hand maiden of the doctor that we are a team and that our intelligence should be respected and valued.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Why does it seems as if the author is being attacked, she/ he had brought up an idea, will cross training and shadowing each other’s day help alleviate some of these sterotyping? Why has nobody reflected on that. Instead the focus seems to be on the professional chioce of the author which is a very personal thing for all of us and should be respected or does that make this person less of an RN?
Nurses should try to be more tolerant and accept that not being the same does not mean wrong
June 13th, 2008 at 1:00 am
i think that it would be great to have followed a doctor around for a day… to see where they go when they “disappear” from the unit… to see what kinds of things they deal with, and especially to see what kinds of information is important to pass along to a doctor… that would have been great
and vice versa… it would be great to have a few of the residents see what we do all day and how their “few orders” translate into how i spend my time that day…
June 28th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I do like your idea of having the nursing follow md and the other way around. I Medical program in the area I work in does something like that.
We have med students with us, but only for a short time, even though it is a short time I think it is good that they expose them to what nurses do…I think this opens their eyes, of course we have some med student who already think they are better then us nurses but for the most part they are all great and very interested in what we do!!! Great idea!!!