Are nurses smarter than resident physicians?

Okay so i work at a large teaching hospital/level one trauma facility. I rotated through the ED and a patient came in with suspected drug OD. We didn't know what the patient took but tried narcan and it didn't work. I suggested the use of Romazicon to the resident (assuming that if the patient ODed on benzos it would be worth a try) and he looked at me crazy. He had never heard of the drug. What????

Has anyone else found that the residents at your facility are clueless???? Last edit by LeLeeFNP on Mar 4, '10 : Reason: error
LOL--I just came from a very large teaching institution and have felt the same way on many many occasions, especially the entire month of July! Fortunately, I worked on a floor that had amazing relationships with all of our senior residents and attendings, so they knew which of the newbies to keep away from us. But what I learned from working with most of them was that a lot of their problem was that they had no confidence in their knowledge. They have to rotate from area to area every few months, and their brains are on overload--but we, as nurses are used to seeing the same type of patient over and over again--so we are thinking two steps ahead of them, they still need a minute or two to sit down and process. I think they need to hone their skills and become comfortable in their new environment, they are intimidated by us =)

I had a second year onc resident that didn't know what versed was. He didn't know the doses for scopolamine or morphine were either.

'Dissing residents is really unattractive and unfortunate. It's about on par with 'dissing student nurses for not knowing everything, IMO. Residents are just operating within their roles and learning. If they were ready to practice medicine solo, they'd be attending physicians.

This is really an inflammatory topic with a false dichotomy. Are first year nurses smarter than Attendings? We are all a health care team. If you encounter a resident who is not versed on a particular drug take the time to teach. Baby docs can benefit from seasoned nurses just as baby nurses can benefit from seasoned docs.

Being smart and having knowledge are two different things. One comes naturally, one comes with time and education.In the long run, Doctors are certainly more knowledgeable than Nurses.Students in training - especially in programs as intensive as residency - are only as knowledgeable as their instructors let them be.I'd be willing to bet if you sat Doctors down with RN's who both have about 2-3 years experience and started asking random medical questions, the Doctors would come out on top.

I had a very wise nursing professor in grad school and she said to me "If nurses think they are smarter than doctors, then they forgot what nursing is all about." Translation: We may have a working knowledge of each other's professions, but we have separate theories of practice. The more education I get in nursing, the more I understand that concept. We should complement each other like ying and yang instead of conflict and distain. Our patients will only benefit from the teamwork.

At our small rural hospital we do not have resident physician we have several nursing students 6days per week. I know that these nursing students need the experienced nurses to help them become experienced nurses. I would imagine it is similar with new resident physicians that you need to be careful how you handle them so they respect nurses when they become attending physicians. That is the easy thing to do, take the high road, help them have a good view of nurses.

Quote from multicollinearity'Dissing residents is really unattractive and unfortunate. It's about on par with 'dissing student nurses for not knowing everything, IMO. Residents are just operating within their roles and learning. If they were ready to practice medicine solo, they'd be attending physicians.

Quote from Angel_RN_1Okay so i work at a large teaching hospital/level one trauma facility. I rotated through the ED and a patient came in with suspected drug OD. We didn't know what the patient took but tried narcan and it didn't work. I suggested the use of Romazicon to the resident (assuming that if the patient ODed on benzos it would be worth a try) and he looked at me crazy. He had never heard of the drug. What????Has anyone else found that the residents at your facility are clueless????

Quote from Angel_RN_1Okay so i work at a large teaching hospital/level one trauma facility. I rotated through the ED and a patient came in with suspected drug OD. We didn't know what the patient took but tried narcan and it didn't work. I suggested the use of Romazicon to the resident (assuming that if the patient ODed on benzos it would be worth a try) and he looked at me crazy. He had never heard of the drug. What????Has anyone else found that the residents at your facility are clueless????

I hope I never forget what it's like to be new.

I agree, we were all new at one point. Did have a resident ask mw what CHF was though.