do nurses do really anything it sounds to me that they are just help...?

Question

doctor is too much but nurseing sounds practicall....... what do they do anyways?

Answer 1

Wow, Danerz and Theresa gave you such great answers - I agree with what they've said.

When I was a "civilian", I never understood what nurses do, what tremendous responsibility they had. The most important thing is probably what Theresa said: "Assess! Assess! Assess!" We really the eyes and ears of the doctor, you bring to them any intuition, insight or brainstorm, no matter how small or how much you may be dismissed or ridiculed for it. Better that you make a fuss over nothing than let something go and have a patient suffer. In the beginning I didn't have the confidence to call a doctor merely on my intuition that something was wrong, now I do (especially if it's before midnight, it goes over so much better then).

I remember in nursing school I was overwhelmed by my list of skills I needed to checkoff and my repeated failure at successful IV starts. When I got tearful, one of my great instructors who had been a nurse for eons told me "Any monkey can be taught to do skills, but it takes a good nurse to do a good thorough assessment, think critically and make good, effective interventions specific to each patients' needs"

Meaning: good nurses and doctors develop a good intuition just by touching, looking at, talking to the patient they get a sense that something is wrong. The minute they walk in the room they are assessing everything about the patient, general appearance, color, the way they talk, the appearance of their skin, even how well groomed they are, or things around the room to start a conversation to make a connection with the patient like books they are reading or photos of their grandchildren. They get ideas on what might be going on with the patient, not only physically but also emotionally and socially. They brainstorm, they research things they encounter that they aren't familiar with. I can't tell you how many times I've been at work and a nurse is chewing a sandwich gazing at the computer. Is she answering e-mail during her lunchbreak? No, she's researching an obscure diagnosis such as fungal renal bezoars in preemies, or reinforcing her knowledge of placenta accreta or DIC so she can better explain to her patient or their families in language they can understand, plus enhance their own understanding. Often, we do this for patient's we don't even see, just because we heard chatter about it at the nurse's station. Yet, with all this caring, nursing is consistently misunderstood by the generic public most people understand that doctors are important but not everyone understand what nurses even do. I think this is complicated by the fact that nurses do very menial tasks (clear food trays, feed patients who can't feed themselves) and very personal tasks (toileting, diapering) they are seen as servants, which in a way we are.

In the time of Florence Nightingale, nurses were often prostitutes and other lower class people recruited to help tend to soldiers, no respectable woman, certainly not a married woman or a mother in particular, would have taken a job devoted to bathing and tending in a personal manner to a bunch of handsome young men. Even as recently as forty years ago, nurses were really handmaidens for the doctors, I've really heard some horror stories about doctors sitting around smoking CIGARS at the nurse's station and slapping the nurse's rear ends when they walk by and sending them off to pick up their lunch for them. Plus, nurses gave every patient a nightly bath complete with towel dry, lotion, powder and foot massage all garbed in their cute little white cap and starched white dress. Now, everyone out there is probably thinking it sounds pretty nice - and it did - for the patients and the doctors but not so much for us! We have really come a long way in gaining respect and recognition from doctors and the general public and at the same time seen a huge increase in responsibilities and liability as well.

Anyway, probably much more an answer than you were looking for, I'm starting to feel like I'm repeating a lecture from my History of Nursing class - so I'll stop now.

Answer 2

Assess, assess, assess. We spend the whole day assessing patients' health. Get somebody walking around again and getting activity to help recover from illness or surgery. Watching for warning signs that something may be going wrong. Giving meds and monitoring effects and side effects, letting the doctor know if the med regimen isn't working. Treating pain. Teaching and comforting patients and families. Figuring out if they need referrals to other resources for mental health, or assistance of any other kind. Registered nurses also oversee almost all the other staff on the floor in one way or another.

This list barely scratches the surface, but I hope you get the idea. Nurses do much more than just help the doctor; doctors and nurses act as a team, but we have very different jobs.

Answer 3

Not only do nurses clean up "droppings" and change "diapers", we give life saving medications and interventions, aleviate pain, educate the public, deliver babies, collaborate (work in a team) with doctors, respiratory therapists, social workers, pharmacists, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. We delegate to LPNs, nurse assistants, and techs. We don't just take orders from doctors. We are the eyes and ears of the doctors because they can't be at the bedside with the patient all day. When something happens, or we know something is about to happen with a patient, we notify them and explain the situation. Through this teamwork, the doctor writes an order for patients recieve interventions like a new medication, new IV fluid, or new treatment that we (the nurses) then carry out. There are so many different types of nurses, and yes, some have very basic, practical jobs. Others have advanced practice degrees and can provide prenatal care and deliver babies, work in critical care units writing orders and collaborating with a team as critical care nurse practitioners, see patients in an office as a nurse practitioner, or provide anesthesia for patients having surgery and epidurals for women in labor. We don't just do what we are told. A good nurse uses critical thinking to analyze situations and intervene. If he/she thinks an order from a physician is unsafe, he/she has not only a right but an obligation to speak up. If you are interested in nursing, I really encourage you to explore and look up nursing information on the internet. Try and see if you can spend a day shadowing a nurse. There are just so many avenues opened to Registered Nurses. And yes, sometimes our jobs involve doing unpleasant things, but if you yourself are ever in need of such services, you will be so glad that there is an understanding, compassionate persone to help you.

Answer 4

As a physician, I can only tell you how important nurses are to me. I am in the ER so the roles my be a little different than in other settings. But the nurse is the first "decision maker" to see the patient when they roll through the door. They are the ones that make that initial assessment: "Does this patient need to be seen right now?" They come to me with what they think the diagnosis is. We talk about treatment plans. Yes, I have the final say on what interventions will be done, but I listen to what my nurses tell me and what they think is going on. And thankfully, they come to me to clarify orders. They know the doses and typical routes of drug administration. So when something doesn't look right, they come to me and ask "Did you really want to give....?" I have always respected and learned from the nursing staff... starting as a medical student. As BabyRN said the good ones are always learning. They come to me with an EKG and ask me what it means or how I interpreted a certain set of lab values, what did I see in this patient.

As a side note. I say "my nurses" all the time. I mean that with great respect. I use the term like I am referring to my family. And after you have been working together for a long time, in pretty stressful situations, that's exactly how you feel.

Answer 5

Depends on the Hospital

My OH has a CRRN she has been in nursing for over 40 years
she is the MDS coordinator for one of the top Multiple handicaped/Teaching Hospitals in The US, She filled in as the Head Nurse for about 6 months, thats one of the toughest jobs because your on call 24/7/365

The first hosp she went to was GWUH in DC as second shift RN in the emergency room

At one hosp all she was allowed to do was change bed pans

In most hosp they give medications, some training some hope to dying folks depends

Big range of duties

Answer 6

Doctors don't usually stay around for long time, you know they have other work to do, so they check on patients and give their instructions to nurses whom watch and make sure they follow up all issues untill next visit by the doctor.

Answer 7

The scope of practice differs from state to state, but in NY...nurses are able to dispense medicine, wrap wounds, change dressings, write in charts, be in charge of the nursing aides, etc. And it depends on if you are talking about an LPN or an RN. they are different in the amount of patient contact they have too

Answer 8

Nurses have to clean up 'droppings' and change 'diapers'

Answer 9

im not sure, if you know anyone who is a nurse you should ask them

Answer 10

this would take up to much time go to google or www.nurse.com