In my time working as a nurse I've rarely ever personally experienced any of that Doctor v. Nurse agenda that can cause rifts between the groups of professionals. But today I got a dose I didn't even see coming.
First of all, I don't think the person making the comment had any idea at all that it would be found so offensive. Second, the doctor in question did mean what he said, and was a bit appalled by the situation being described to him. The exact comment was, "You mean you worked as a floor nurse when you were a licensed nurse practitioner? How could you DO that!!" I'm very proud of my colleague in the polite, educated way she responded. I, however, was ready to give a returning dose of something to the doctor in question.
To defend the doc's side, I don't think he actually knew what it is that nurses really do all day. I don't think he has had many of the moments of deep connection with patients that nurses thrive on, because if he did there would have been more respect. I also don't think he understands what it is like to coordinate the kind of care that we do and what it takes for a nurse to do their job well. I don't fault him for this, I fault his training. As a resident he is whisked in and out of rooms with nary time to retract his pen between patients on morning rounds. As student nurses we are sent into rooms at times for the sole purpose of learning how to connect with patients.
To be fair there are many physicians I've encountered who are more than willing to collaborate with nurses and understand what we do. They know how we are each valuable in different ways to the care and comfort of our patients, and that by working together with other members of the care time we can offer the best outcomes for our patients. These are also the same physicians who I have seen hold patients hands and spend extra time with them whenever needed.
The doctor in question isn't one of them. Well, not today anyway.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
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1 comments:
I could be completely off base here, but there is a kind of physician whose motivation is to cheat death. S/he sees diseases and organic malfunctions as things needing fighting.
I applaud that level of technical expertise. It is necessary. But the other half - the people part - is not just important, it's an essential part of the whole treatment.
In increasingly defining medicine as procedures, medications and dollars, it's easy to think in terms of things, and forget the people. Things are rational. People are not. Things can be measured. People cannot.
So I don't blame a physician for that thinking. It's necessary to be able to perform, to cheat death. But it must be balanced by compassion, and that isn't billable.
I find the same problem in the computer business. We are so quick to advocate and defend our stuff - computers, networks, software - but are we really helping people with it? I can't see a clear answer, after 25 years.
What we need is the computing equivalent of nursing.
Maybe we should take a few notes.
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