Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/519657
1 8 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E J U N E 2 0 1 5 • The root of the problem. Nurses have always faced inequality in society. Due to class issues and gender issues, they've always been seen as playing a subservient role. Physicians and nurses are assimilated into this mindset and keep it in place, even if they're not aware they're doing it. Both parties play this game, and it is accepted and adequate. For example, we nurses ask questions and make statements in a way that will preserve the doctor's ego. If you're calling the doctor at home about a patient emergency, what do you mean, "I'm sorry to bother you, doctor?" • Untapped resources. Meeting with a class of nurses, I asked them, "Can you name 2 or 3 things that nurses have, but physicians don't, that are critical to success- ful surgical outcomes?" They couldn't. I asked a group of physicians the same question. They also didn't know. I can tell you what they are. As a nurse: I have the trendline. I may be with the patient for 12 hours, while you are working on him for a comparatively short time. I can anticipate emerging situations and opportunities for rescue. I know your work patterns. I know what you usually use, when you use it, and can remind you when you've missed a step. I see different doctors doing the same surgeries, as well as their results. Sometimes they do things differently than you. Sometimes their outcomes are better than yours. I can tell you how they've achieved those outcomes. • Leading by example. I didn't become a nurse until I was almost 40 years old. I walked into the profession at age 39, after a divorce, and I immediately noticed the subtle power difference between doctors and nurses. I said, "Why are you treating your nurses like this?" I didn't play that game. I simply wasn't going to be intimidated. Within 6 months after I'd graduated from nursing school, I was promoted to charge nurse on my floor, because I could hold my own with the doctors. 1 2 3