I Am a Registered Nurse
The one thing I really don’t like about nursing is being put in the middle. By that I mean having to deal with MD’s who quite frankly can be dumb as a post with a huge ego vs. dealing with the patients needs. The MD’s flit in and out (and some have the documentation skills of a two year old assuming they can get into the EPIC system to begin with) but we deal with the patients all the time.
Now that I am done complaining, the one thing that I keep being amazed at is watching the difference between medical science and art of medicine. We have enough young docs who follow the science of medicine but it is the older MD’s who practice the art of medicine and who have my admiration and respect.
They focus on the patient and know how to help the patient in so many ways that the young turks just cannot fathom. I had one patient complaining about a severe headache and the young hospitalist was ready to order cat scans, drugs, everything. Then the patients old (elderly) GP came in took one look at the patient and told us to get her a dish of ice cream. Five minutes after the ice cream headache was gone, patient happy and world goes on without a lot of medical costs and test.
I also remember when I was in nursing school for my BSN and doing my practical’s we of course learned how to insert foley’s into manikins (which of course never wiggle, complain, etc). My first real life experience was with a difficult insertion on an elderly gentleman was far different.. I think I was in greater distress than he was trying to get it into him and the supervising nurse was chewing my butt in front of him when an older floor nurse came in and told me to have him pant like a dog and wiggle his toes. Bingo, slid right in. That is something I have never seen in a nursing text book.
In my mind perhaps it is time to focus more on the art of medicine than the science. Seems the art is being lost and it is the poor patients that suffer.
Now that I am done complaining, the one thing that I keep being amazed at is watching the difference between medical science and art of medicine. We have enough young docs who follow the science of medicine but it is the older MD’s who practice the art of medicine and who have my admiration and respect.
They focus on the patient and know how to help the patient in so many ways that the young turks just cannot fathom. I had one patient complaining about a severe headache and the young hospitalist was ready to order cat scans, drugs, everything. Then the patients old (elderly) GP came in took one look at the patient and told us to get her a dish of ice cream. Five minutes after the ice cream headache was gone, patient happy and world goes on without a lot of medical costs and test.
I also remember when I was in nursing school for my BSN and doing my practical’s we of course learned how to insert foley’s into manikins (which of course never wiggle, complain, etc). My first real life experience was with a difficult insertion on an elderly gentleman was far different.. I think I was in greater distress than he was trying to get it into him and the supervising nurse was chewing my butt in front of him when an older floor nurse came in and told me to have him pant like a dog and wiggle his toes. Bingo, slid right in. That is something I have never seen in a nursing text book.
In my mind perhaps it is time to focus more on the art of medicine than the science. Seems the art is being lost and it is the poor patients that suffer.
36-40, F
