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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
No, they don’t “run the show”. They are doing what the doctors tell them to do. But they are the ones who will be taking care of you 24/7 - you will only see the doc for ten minutes a day.[/quote]

It's clear that you or your loved ones have never spent any amount of time in an ICU.  Be thankful for that good luck!  And try some humility, because you couldn't be more incorrect about who is actually making the minute-by-minute decisions in the ICU.

Hint: it's the "trashy" "hot mess" "blue collar" "slutty" ones.  That is, if they're not playing cards.

[/quote]

New poster. I don't have anything against nurses, but when I had a loved one in the ICU for weeks, I was shocked by how the nurses didn't know anything. They show up every twelve hours for a shift, they try to skim a chart and catch up, they seem to miss everything, they all contradict each other and the doctors, and they are lucky not to kill more people. Our family doctors told us to stop talking to the nurses entirely because they didn't know what was going on.

Most people don't see all of this because they're not dealing with such a serious case every day and night for six weeks.

I agree with PP. Nurses don't "run the show."At the end pf the day, when things are bad, surgeons run the show. They are the rock stars. Surgeons save lives. And though we only saw the surgeons a couple of times, they were in surgery with my loved one for more than six hours - twice. And other doctors/specialists stopped by every day to help save my loved one's life - and they always knew what was going on. Sure, some were better than others, but all were worlds away from the nurses.

Nothing against nurses, but I left thinking that I would never want my kids to be nurses. Maybe some of them are brilliant, but they are basically just there to provide medication and monitor things enough to report to the specialists/doctors.

Maybe it's different when things aren't life and death.

[/quote]

This assessment is a downer to read as a nurse but I do believe that many patient families believe this (especially in an ICU/CCU context where things change FAST). They don't understand that things DO or DON'T happen based on the nurses assessment, documentation, communicating and reporting skills and relationships with the MDs, and even then, you can practically beg an MD to do the right thing (if s/he is a jerk) but in the end, they make the orders and we can only follow them or choose not to based on risk/contraindication. I have 'taken one for the team' quite a few times when the issue/error came from the MD and the chart (which the clients rarely see) proves it but the family decides to yell at you.[/quote]

Maybe the system is broken. But when you pop on duty at 6 am or whatever, you need to read and understand the charts. Not just glance at them. You need to be able to communicate the correct facts to the family (especially those like us who would never yell at anyone, no matter what). I was interrogated by one nurse about my loved one's alcohol intake, but he doesn't drink alcohol. Another nurse told us that he would "die" within 48 hours. She seemed darkly thrilled by this. Another nurse told us she couldn't stand to work at her ICU because she had seen so many people like our loved one die - needlessly. It was a lot of drama that we didn't need, and we ended up comforting her, which was crazy. And after my loved one was transferred via helicopter to another hospital, I was told the following morning by an earnest nurse that his condition had not improved and therefore his surgery was cancelled. She cited a list of medical reasons. None were true. And he survived and is fine now.

These are the big things I remember, but mostly I remember a lot of nurses who gossiped at the nurse's station and were pretty unfriendly towards visitors. I am sad to say that I only really liked one nurse the entire time - and I'm the kind of person who knows and likes basically everyone from Starbucks to the supermarket to work and my kids' schools, etc.

I guess at the end of the day, I felt like the nurses felt overburdened, overwhelmed, and under appreciated  - and frankly that hey had something to prove - and they took all of this out on the patients and their families. I learned one thing: if you or a loved one ends up at a hospital, please don't leave them. Be there with the, and be their advocate.

[/quote]

PP that you responded to. I won't/can't respond to your anecdotes but I want to advise that for what you stated, issues like this should always be reported up in a timely fashion.

I wanted to advise re: expectations- that charts do NOT get read. This is not a part of reports/expectations and never has been. AM/PM Report happens verbally or written. You then hit the ground running. There is no reading of the chart. Hell, the MDs rarely even read them, and often just the progress notes-which puts MDs in the same situation- you are only as good as the report you got. This would take hours to read/review charts- I know because I audit them in my side job for lawyers trying cases. For an example of reporting- at hospitals there is a 'short form' reporting called a Kardex that gets updated at shift change. This is all you go on. How it is done depends on how integrated the systems EMR/EHR is. The only time we grab a chart is if something isn't adding up, is feeling 'off' or you are confused about a plan of care that makes no sense. Sometimes you grab a chart because the case is particularly interesting, but that would be on personal time/a lunch break if you get one. If this terrifies you, it's good you have a family member with your loved one.

I won't post further as this really is the 'would you marry a nurse' thread so will get it out of the weeds.[/quote]

You sound like a terrible nurse.  Yes nurses do and should read charts.  The good ones, but as PP says, there are not many.  [/quote]

+ 100[/quote]

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