I'm an experienced nurse. Why do doctors treat me as their PA?

Old-fashioned attitudes persist, but advanced nurse practitioners have been credited with improving NHS services

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I’d worked as an advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) for a few years when I had a routine meeting with one of the consultant supervisors. He arrived late, thrust a lunchbox into my hands and told me to heat his food in the microwave.

This wasn’t the first time I had been delegated such a task. I’d booked (and cancelled) dinner reservations, called travel agents and moved cars in hospital car parks. I’m a nurse, not a personal assistant. Frustrated, I questioned why this kept happening. Was it because it was traditional for doctors to be served by permissive and obliging nurses who stood to attention by the patient’s bed as they patrolled the ward? Was it because I worked with surgeons, known for their talent and decisiveness, but also for their arrogant and egocentric characters? Or was it simply that they didn’t understand my role?

Related: Meet the nurse who will soon perform surgery on patients alone

This attitude extends beyond other staff to patients, who refuse to be seen by us and ask for a 'proper doctor' instead

Related: I shunned studying medicine to become a nurse. Here's why

Continue reading... February 26, 2018 at 01:41PM