"Doctor's Stethoscope" say what?

Not sure how many of you watch that show "The View" (I've watched clips of it on Youtube in the past), but there has been recent controversy about what they said this past week regarding nurses.

On September 14, the 4 ladies at the desk were discussing the Miss America pageant and the various contestants on the show when they stumbled upon Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson. If you haven't watched the clips that have been circulating all over social media, Kelley came onto stage in her nursing scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck, and talked about nursing and how her patient made an impact on her as a nurse, and what it's like to be a nurse. Each contestant were to showcase their talent in front of the nation, whatever it may be, and Kelley decided to talk about nursing because it's her talent. Nurses all around the globe saluted her for what she said and did.

The View however did not express the same gratitude.

Michelle Collins and Joy Behar, two of the hosts of the show, were hoping for a nice monologue from Kelley but instead thought she was "reading her emails" so to speak. Then Joy asked why she was wearing a "doctor's stethoscope" around her neck. These comments have made nurses and doctors around the world pose with stethoscopes around their necks and have taken over social media websites, to stand up for nurses and what they do.

The View have tried to apologize since the comments were made public, but it was a half hearted apology that many people still do not accept.

I am by no means pissed off by the comments, because I've heard worst things being said about other people. But I am appalled by how in this day and age, there is still the misconception of who doctors and nurses are and what they do. It really affects how the younger generation will choose their career and their interpretation of how doctors and nurses should be. Social media plays such a huge role these days, and if young people are influenced by it, they will start believing what is said is true.

I understand it takes 4 years of undergrad and another 4-5 years of medical school to become a general doctor, and it could take many years to specialize in a field when you become a specialized doctor. It is a very long journey that requires a lot of work, time, knowledge, money, stress..you name it. Nursing generally speaking takes anywhere from 2-4 years (RPN - RN) and a Nurse Practitioner would require another 2-4 years on top of that (Masters is now recommended before another 2 years of NP). When you think about it, it takes 8 years to either become a doctor, or a nurse practitioner. The path is not easy either way.

Yet people still think that nurses are just doctor aids. In reality, nurses are the backbones to the health care system. Nurses are the ones who are by the bedside everyday, assessing the patients first thing at shift change. They are the ones reporting any abnormal findings to the doctors. If nurses really had less knowledge than doctors, they wouldn't be allowed to assess patients in the first place. Why not just hire 8 doctors to run the unit and get rid of the nurses? If all units in the hospitals did that, the hospital would go bankrupt in less than a day.

Doctors and nurses (along with pharmacists, social workers, PT/OT, dieticians etc) all work together as a team for each patient, to make sure their road to recovery is a successful one. No one is trying to climb to the top to succeed as the "hero" for discharging a patient home. No, it's a huge team effort to make one patient's recovery a success story.

As for the "doctor's stethoscope" comment, I can elaborate.

A few years ago while working on the unit, a patient had gone unconscious. Prior to that, he had vomited a huge amount of blood into a basin. He had a history of esophageal varices (enlarged veins in the esophagus leading to the stomach), and based on this, there was a rupture. It becomes an emergency  situation. There was no doctor on the unit, so the ICU doctor was called and he came running. I had felt the patient's pulse slowly decreasing in strength and eventually stopped. CPR was initiated but it was found on record to not do CPR, so it was discontinued. The ICU doctor came to assess, but he needed a stethoscope. He didn't bring his. I had mine at that time so I lent him mine. He declared the patient dead. With the "nurse's stethoscope".

Point is, it doesn't matter who has it or wears it. Because both doctors and nurses have stethoscopes for the same reasons, and we work together to assess a patient's condition. It is not for decoration, but it is a symbol of hope, and help. Assessment skills are key to life or death. But in most situations, it is the nurse who is by the patient's side when their condition deteriorates. It is the nurse's job to assess and determine whether further action is required. It is the nurse who is the main communicator to the rest of the team when it comes to patient conditions.

Nurses are more than just a doctor's sidekick. They are also not doctor juniors, or "those who are not smart enough to be a doctor" (my favourite!). They are health care professionals who went to school and have to remember a vast amount of knowledge. On the ward, nurses become the doctors, the pharmacists, the OT/PT, the dieticians, the waitresses, the technicians...all combined into one. It sounds crazy, but I can't tell you how many times a patient has asked me about certain drug interactions, or what food they can or can't eat, when could they start walking again after surgery, and if I could fix their TVs and remotes.

So hat's off to Kelley Johnson. I admire your speech and your wardrobe that night. You are beautiful and talented with a heart of gold, and I give you props for what you do as a nurse. Keep up with the nursing career.

As for the ladies on the View, I'm just saddened that you would still use misconceptions of the health care system to gain an audience and to make it a laughing matter. I hope one day you will see what nurses and doctors really do to save your loved ones, or yourselves. And I hope you will learn from that.