Did you know that more nurses are assaulted than all the prison guards in the US?
Did you know that more than half of US nurses have been bullied on the job?
Did you know that over half the bullying comes from physicians?
Did you know that nursing is rarely if ever portrayed in the media?
Did you know that in movies,television, and print that most nursing care is shown delivered by physicians?
Did you know that without expert clinical care that only nurses provide you would die if you were a hospital patient?
I am constantly amazed when I read or hear anything about a patient's survival and the only thing mentioned is that the physician saved their life. If you watch any of the garbage medical shows that are on TV like Grey's/ER/House etc that nurses are rarely shown and if they are they are mute or say ridiculous things like "yes doctor" as if we were nothing more than a servant. Nurses do not answer to physicians and do not practice under the physicians license. The general public has no clue as to who provides a good patient outcome. Part of this is nursing's fault as they don't speak up enough. I used to laugh when I would see on TV a physician giving IV meds, performing CPR, defibrillating a heart during a code, or 24/7 monitering and intervening to prevent medical errors, or life threatening infections or complications but after 31 years I am not laughing any more. Only nursing does this along with a myriad of other highly expert and technical things.I also shake my head at all the displaced workers who are choosing nursing as THE profession to go into. They along with most others will not last. Until steps are taken to remedy the stranglehold physicians have on the media I don't see progress being made. I do my part dailyby taking a zero tolerance stance on physician or pt verbal abuse but I see many who do not speak up. I guess I am asking anyone who reads this to start paying attention to the lack of mention of nursing in all they hear and read. Any natural disaster such as Katrina makes no mention of the nursing that was instrumental in saving lives. Likewise no mention is made of the critically injured and wounded from Iraq and Afganistan that are saved by the expert nursing care they received. I read an article on a soldier that survived and from that would have thought the physicians stayed with the patient during the entire course of his recovery. Over 150,000 RN's do not practice in this country due to some of these issues. The public had better start caring because all studies have shown that a lack of RN staff increases mortality and morbidity.
