Ok, I've Said It Before, And I'll Say It Again. . .

I've talked about people asking me about becoming a doctor before. . . sort of.  I actually linked to somebody else talking about it.  They said it as well as I could.

Last night, I had a patient who was fairly advanced in age.  Her daughters were with her.  When I came into the room I introduced myself as the triage nurse and explained what I would be doing.  As I finished my assessment, the patient asked me, "you're the doctor, right?"  I responded by telling her I was the triage nurse and what my job was.  The rest of the conversation went like this:

Annoying Lady: But you're going to be a doctor. . .

NurseHubba: No, ma'am.  I'm a nurse.  I don't want to be a doctor. 

Annoying Lady: Oh, I bet you don't.  That makes sense.

NurseHubba: *smiles*

Annoying Lady: They work way too hard.  I wouldn't want to do that either.

Suddenly, I found myself wanting to throat punch an old lady.  What the hell does she think nurses do?   Sit on our ass and do the NY Times crossword all shift?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the doctors and all that they do.  There is a lot of responsibility there.  But, who is it that is actually carrying out most of the treatments, assessment, and patient care?  The nurses!

Again, love the docs. . . but come on!