Physicians disrespect nurses?
gwqueeen wrote:Skyla,
Sorry. My eyes crossed after reading so many posts. I finally found the post regarding your education, but I'm still interested in knowing how long you've done actual bedside nursing. I disagree with you on more than a few points and I would like to bring up one that hasn't been mentioned. You seem to think that the increasing number of BSNs is the reason physicians have greater respect for nurses. I disagree. I believe it is in a great part due to the women's movement, forcing them to take a harder look at who they work with and giving nurses the confidence to stand up for themselves, no matter what type of degree they have.
Thanks for bringing up this controversial issue. I'm currently studying in a grad school where it has many medical students. To be honest with you, many medical students are very friendly, regardless of what the students' disciplines are.
HOWEVER, I have seen that physicians being rude to the nurse. Traditionally, (according to the Florence Nightingale's pledge), nurses should be subserviant and loyal to the physicians no matter what. That's why physicians considered nurses as their 'maids' (in the old days). In the past, people can become a nurse with a diploma degree. As a result, some physicians disrespected the nurse due to the nurse's low qualification.
Nowadays, nurses are obtaining higher and higher qualifications in the healthcare field. The role of the doctor (PhD) of nurse practitioner is almost the same as the physician. MD/OD. It's very interesting that some medical students expressed dismay of the Phd degree of nurse practitioner due to the fact that they feared that the nurses will take over their jobs !
My point is that, no matter what the nurse's qualification is, there will always be few physicians who treat nurses disrespectfully. This is just the same as there're good and bad people everywhere. Considering how difficult medical school is, I believe that some physicians just want to release their anger and frustration onto someone else.
My approach is that: If you ever encounter the 'mean' physicians, just ignore them. Afterall, we are all working in the same field but different roles. If anything happens, just report it to your supervisor.
