"do you wanna talk to the doctor in charge or the nurse who knows whats going on"

this makes me laugh everytime i see it. its actually quite true. sorry to burst your bubble for all the people who thought doctors were god-like, there really not.

they do know alot. alot from the books they study. as for how people actually work *realistically how they work* nursing staff know more because we deal with them more..

an issue just came about that made me laugh and think of this. im pretty sure i pissed the attending off but when you fight with a nurse who knows what shes talking about and try every effort to prove her wrong, and two hours later shes right, i get to laugh at you..

im sure most of you dont know much about medi-ports and central lines so ill explain them simply: there a larger more productive version of an IV.

a pt came in wanting us to draw blood and do cultures off of her medi-port. what she didnt say right away was why.. they were suspected to be infected (nice rhyme i know..)

nurses, lab techs, not even most doctors will ever draw off of any mediport (or central line) that may be infected. these can spread anything faster than ivs or anything else. so after many many phone calls to her doc, other docs, our lab, our charge nurses, ect.. we finally all came to the conclusion (actually the doctor and patient did) that WE CAN NOT DRAW OFF OF THAT LINE and we wont. its not worth our liscense or job.

not to say this happens all the time but, this happens all the time!

we get it. you trust doctors and thats great, you should. they go to school they learn alot and they save lives.. but they dont have the people skills we do and they def. dont have the time we do to spend with you. 98% of people (<<this comes from my head, not actual statistics but its pretty accurate. ask anyone who works in the emergency room)

another reason why nurses know as much as doctors is because we see it all. over and over and over again. no two cases are the same for anything. but when we see symptoms we've seen in a pt before we notify the doctor who can say "yeah ive read about that" or "ive seen that once before and yeah it seems that way" theyve seen it once to our 100 pretty much.

so the next time you say you want to talk to the doctor in charge, you may want to rethink that decision. by all means tell your doctor whats needed, especially when your in the er. dont keep anything back because it could only hurt you in the end. but let the nursing staff know whats going on to. especially since you'll see us more than you'll see the doctor.