Nurse vs Medic debate

I've been posting some of Sean Eddy's paramedic memes recently, having a few laughs when I posted one about a TV Paramedic only being in EMS until he gets into medical school.  I thought is was pretty self explanatory.

 

This morning I see 23 comments.  How can there be 23 comments about a silly picture?

Here is the first one:

"sad...yet why true? we do more thanmost nurses in poor conditions, more than many allied health care providers, yet who wants education and a true unified body to be compensated at a higher wage?? sad when mileage is reimbursed at higher rate tan our evals and treatments, oh yeah, that we diagnose."

I liked the comment and went on.  After all medics do do more in worse conditions than nurses.  Fact.  Mileage seems more important than our treatments. Fact.  I agree.  This seems to be a running argument between the bed pan washers and the knuckle dragging ambulance drivers: "Who is better?"

Then there was this comment:

"Nurses think they are better than medics. I hear it all the time when im working in the ED, but I enjoy what I do. We are more hands on then they will ever be."

And from there it just goes downhill. My comments are a general response to the debate, not a direct response to those who posted on the page.

The medics found an unconscious person in a hallway. They assessed, treated, extricated and transported to local ER. At local ER the nurses turn up their noses at the medics' "diagnosis' of DKA and remind the ambulance drivers that they haven't completed a lick of medical school or nursing school.  Time is wasted gathering information instead of continuing care, care started by the medics in the field without direct medical oversight.

Am I right so far?

Nurse monitoring 11 patients due to short staffing has orders for 3 of them requiring him to re-assess, draw, administer and reassess the meds making sure they do not go against possible future interventions on another floor or in another ward.  Making sure room 6 doesn't sneak in a sandwich before surgery, room 8 needs a wound irrigated and the woman in the hallway is asking for details on her newly prescribed medication.  Dr Johnson's hand writing is still illegible and his 3cc should actually be 3mg, confirm and administer.  Ambulance patient arrives and will need his full attention.  But first he needs to make sure the rest of his patients are cared for.

Am I right so far?

 

People, please.  I hate nurses as much as they hate me.  Meaning likely not at all.

Paramedics get upset for not being recognized as a profession while they're out there breaking hearts and saving lives.  Nursing has curious roots and took a long time to reach where they are in the medical hierarchy.  We in EMS have just as curious a birth (less prostitutes but more dead people) and are well on the way to being a recognized profession within EMS.  You want it tomorrow?  I hate to break it to you, but most of the EMS professionals reading this are not educated, trained or qualified to reach the Profession status in the eyes of the medical community.

Raise the education guidelines, licensing requirements, hiring standards and maybe, just maybe we'll be on our way.

Many medics are upset at nurses because they get the salary, benefits and opportunities for advancement that EMS lacks.  OK, hate the fact you didn't go to nursing school, not that they did.  The pay sucked in EMS when you got in.  The opportunity for advancement in EMS was nonexistent when you got in.  It isn't the nurse that did that, it's us.

 

If the nurses don't give you the respect you demand, try earning it.  You'd expect nothing less from them, right?