Doctors get all the credit

by **joewhee** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:49 am

Dont kill me if things changed a little with new shows like House, but from a few of the shows I've watched, it seems like nurses do not exist in a hospital. What in the world?

by **Adminnaoum** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:36 pm

I think you're right - nurses don't seem to exist in these tv hospitals. The docs draw blood, give meds, and they seem to outnumber the nurses 2 to 1.

But there also don't seem to be any specialists either. The House team does EVERYTHING: spinal taps, bone marrow biopsy, interventional radiology, cardiac catheterization, ERCP, primary care clinic...you name it they do it.

Plus with the number of gross errors they make it's amazing that any of them still have a medical license.

They should just let the nurses do it all.

by **joewhee** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:25 pm

I'm not sure if a lot of people in the public realize how wonderful and how much nurses do. Giving doctors all of the credit can really hurt our already critical nursing shortage. I know in some hospitals and nursing homes in order to take part in their four or five week CNA courses you now have to sign at least a one year contract.

Its so strange to hear doctors say to nurses "I couldnt do that" or "Wow you did all that" At first I thought those comments were just to flatter the nurses, but I now I really do think that the doctor means it.

Anyways I know with a lot of our students our future MDs and DOs seem to be going down the CNA/EMT B/Firefighting Medic Responder route first before going into medical school. I'm not sure if that is true nationwide, but I know at least with a lot of the students I know including myself it is.

by **Adminnaoum** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:01 pm

I don't know if it's still true of the VA now, but I learned how much nurses do when I did my surgery rotation there.

VA's were (probably still are) horribly understaffed. Two nurses covered an entire floor, so needless to say they were overwhelmed with work. As a result, we the med students ended up doing everything (OK, now I'm sounding like we were on House) - setting up IVs, drawing blood, ABGs, ECGs, changing wound dressings daily. It's a lot to do.

I think if people knew what nurses did on a daily basis nursing salaries would be higher and there would be a lot more people in nursing.

by **joewhee** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:19 am

In our area our ER staff has a lot of problems with patients that cannot speak english, or speak at all. Have you ever seen any television shows that have delt with this problem? I'd be interested to see how Hollywood handles that sort of emergency.