The Nurse's Role as Patient Advocate

I have had a mixed experience with the hospitals where I have worked. Two of the hospitals were really good about nurses being advocates. The thrid was a mixed case.

One of the hospitals where it was widely accepted was a not-for-profit. Everything at that hospital as far as staffing numbers, the docs, my co-workers, etc was better than the other two hospitals I worked for.

The second hospital where it was widely accepted was a for-profit hospital. It however, was a smaller hospital so, the doctor/nurse relationship was better.

As far as the third hospital goes...it was a larger hospital. Some of the docs were really good about nurse advocate roles and others thought they knew everything. I however, never felt like my job was in jeopardy when I was an advocate for my patients even when I was working with these docs.

For me, it's been a toss up. Some nursing execs. and as well MDs were truly patient advocates and others were not. I have been chastised for speaking up on patient safety in past, because for the hopsitals, it's the bottom line that matters. Not the patients, not the nurses.

Fortunately, I got enough back up now, but that's not always been the case.=(

As a patient, I have had a couple of patient advocates, and may I say, "God Bless Them". A patient, who is naked but for a sheet, isolated, wired to the walls, and in desperate pain needs someone on their side-- especially when their family is not present. I think of the dear nurses who helped me when I needed it most and think of the song, "Someone to watch over me..."

I know that all three of you are very good nurses.

I like nurses so much, I married one. I'm also partial to Cardiac Nurses. Cheers!

My job is always FOR THE PATIENT no matter what. Does that mean that the patient always gets what they want. Absolutely not. My job is to keep them safe and to make sure they get what they need to make them better and to look out for symptoms that may indicate that they are getting worse. If I have a patient in my care who is getting worse and I cannot get a doctor to listen to me, I will do what ever I have to to get that patient off my floor and into the ICU. I have had patients DIE while I waited for a doctor to make a decision about this. People think that the doctors are gods. They are human like everyone else. I work with a lot of great doctors and I always have. They rely on me to give them good information and to keep them informed. Nurses are with the patients all the time. Doctors just stop in when they are on rounds. Nurses are in the best position to know when someone is having a change in their condition.

I have been a nurse for 32 years. I am old enough now that doctors don't scare me and I don't put up with crap from them. If they are rude and nasty I report them. They work hard and sometimes they make an error when they write an order. I see all the orders and I fix them or call them for clarification because it is part of my job as checks and balances to see to it that everything done is as accurate as possible. It is important for us to trust each other. They have to be able to trust what I tell them over the phone in the middle of the night. They have to trust that I know how to assess a patient and that I can relay this information in a concise manner so that they can make a decision. I am their eyes and ears when they are not here physicially to see the patient for themselves. And I take that job very seriously.

Any physician who is mean to nurses is really doing him/herself a disservice. Nurses may become more hesitant to call them when the patients need something for fear of getting yelled or cursed at over the phone.

If your physician as a poor relationship with the nurses, there is a reason for that and you should use caution. If the doctor is a bad doctor the nurses usually won't like them. If the nurses don't like the doctor, you might want to get a second opinion.

Happy Nurses Day to all of the Nurses :)

In a job that is as much social worker as medical provider, and where the Nurse is more involved with patient care than is just about anyone else, the Nurse is the critical element in patient care.

The service and care provided with more than a sense of duty, but also with compassion, is care beyond the mere words of any description I could write.

Thank you to you all, from not only a patent's perspective, but also from the perspective of that of a former health care provider who has some idea of what happens outside of that patent's view, and not just within it.

http://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/Fulltext/2009/04000/The_Marketing_of_Osteoporosis.41.aspx

American Journal of Nursing

Nurses probably get the same question I often get as a consumer advocate. Should I be on this drug? You're asked because you're seen as the expert-or, in my case, as simply a knowledgeable friend. More people should ask this question, and they'd be well advised to look beyond the prescriber for answers...

MISLEADING DOCTORS

..Why middle-aged rather than elderly women became the likely recipients of an alendronate prescription is no mystery. Merck's initial ads aimed at physicians encouraged it...

...More than ever, nurses must be knowledgeable advocates for their patients. You may be the last of the independent health care professionals.

More articles by the author:

http://medicalconsumers.org/?s=Maryann+Napoli+

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