Wow! What started off as an apology by the fairly delightful Guitar Girl, RN turned into a slugfest after a somewhat provocative comment by The Happy Hospitalist. It's worth taking a gander at the comments, although it strikes me as an old story.
My surprise is that, in this day and age, any animosity between nurses and physicians still exists. Notably, a physician points out that the medical knowledge base is different from that of nursing's and that our training is complimentary. This appeared to unleash accusations of arrogance, apparently interpreting Happy's comments as an assertion that physicians are better than nurses.
I find it interesting that the accusation came from nurses. In the post-modern world, meaning can come at us from so many different directions. It is funny how an assertion can contain a strange, almost metaphysical evidence of the contrary.
To Guitar Girl RN, I say, Rock On. I'd work with you any day of the week.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
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1 comments:
A great read in this (whether one agrees with it or not) is Nursing Against the Odds, by Suzanne Gordon. A somewhat feminist approach on nursing and the doctor-nurse relationship, she does bring up a lot of good points. My favorite was her analogy to a barge coming into port. "When a large freighter or passenger liner approaches a major port,
until it is safely out into the sea lanes. This sensible procedure, designed to avoid accidents, reflects the fact that navigation on the open sea (think doctor) is the more general skill, while piloting a ship through traffic in a particular port is a highly contextual skill (think nurse). What the (local) pilot knows are local tides and currents along the coast and esbars, unmarked reefs, seasonal changes in microcurrents, local traffic conditions, the daily vagaries of wind patterns off headlands and along straits, how to pilot in these waters at night, not to mention how to bring many different ships safely to berth under variable conditions."
I agree with Guitar Girl RN. I also agree with you. I also think someone who is willing to admit mistakes wherever they land on the pecking order, is pretty cool. I mean, we're here for the patient, bottom line right? It's easy to forget sometimes. I wonder if any of your other readers have read this book? I'd be interested to know.
[I don't have a medical blog but I am an RN in a peds ed]
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