u/lola915

I’m curious if anyone has seen this video going viral on tik tok, I think it’s deleted now. Basically, there was a medical emergency on a train, and an overhead announcement asked if there was a doctor or nurse onboard. An internal medicine attending responded and found a nurse already kneeling next to the patient. According to the physician, when she tried to assess the patient, the nurse put a hand up in her face and said something along the lines of, “I’m a nurse, I got this,” without allowing the physician to evaluate the patient as well. The physician also mentioned that the nurse was trying to give the patient juice despite there being no known history of diabetes or hypoglycemia. She felt like the situation perpetuates the ongoing stigma of tension between nurses vs doctors.

A lot of the stitches I saw from nurses and NPs defended the nurse’s actions, criticized the physician for speaking about it publicly, and some even referred to her as “just a resident,” even though she’s an attending. I haven’t come across many physicians discussing it from their perspective.
I’m genuinely curious how others would have handled this.

If you were the physician walking up to that scene, would you have stepped back after the nurse said that she can handle it or insisted on evaluating the patient?

Especially would like to hear from experiences of female physicians and how to be assertive while also taking on a collaborative approach

I want to start by saying that I’ve worked with some incredible nurses who taught me a lot, had my back, and made difficult rotations so much easier. This post isn’t about them.

But I’d be lying if I said I haven’t also experienced a significant amount of bullying, condescension, and outright disrespect from some nurses throughout residency.

There were multiple occasions where I’d go assess a patient, make a plan, and have a nurse openly disagree with me or speak to me in a very dismissive way. More than once, I’d verify my plan with my attending and they would completely agree with my assessment.

One experience that has stuck with me happened during an ICU rotation. A patient went into complete heart block, and it looked like the pacer wires weren’t capturing appropriately. I called my attending because I was concerned. The nurse looked at me and said, “What year are you?” I said, “3rd year,” and she just rolled her eyes at me. I don’t know what she expected me to do in that situation

Maybe this bothers me more because I’m a young-looking, petite female physician and I often feel like I have to prove myself before people take me seriously.

I guess this is partly a rant and partly a heads-up for future interns. There are incredible nurses out there, but there are also people who will question your competence simply because you’re a resident. I hope things do change for the future