The medication is a blood thinner, the patient is a competent adult not in delirium, A&OX4. There are 2 ways to see this:

Manager’s and a group of doctor’s POV: you are a nurse and it’s your job and duty to do that. Plus, we know better than him what’s good for him. These people have built their identity around working in healthcare and to them this means I have to stay in the room and make sure the patient takes the medication.

My POV: nursing is not a calling but a job. What my manager and these doctors think is stupid:

  • the patient is a competent adult not in delirium, A&OX4. He’s old enough to know what happens if he doesn’t take the medication because we have told him a number of times already. I’m not his father and I’m not ready to treat a competent adult like a child.

  • I have other patients and I’m not going to waste my time watching a patient silently until he decides to take the medication. I’m charting that I left the medication next to him and told him he needs it and why and that I have other patients to take care of.

  • It is stupid to watch a person while doing nothing when I should be working with my other patients. It’s also invasive as f*ck.

I see it like this: my manager and this group of doctors are not ready to respect a person’s autonomy whereas I’m not ready to ignore this same autonomy, even if it means a negative outcome. Respecting a consenting adult’s autonomy means respecting his bad choices as well. I feel this group of doctors and my manager are not ready to respect any patient’s autonomy.

At this moment, this is a hill I’m willing to die on. AITA?

ETA: I wrote about a group of doctors, because there are other doctors that don’t give me hard time if a patient refuses his medication, they simply chart it and move on. I like working with doctors like this because I feel they don’t judge and respect the patient’s autonomy as well.

  • magnetosphere@kbin.social
    0·
    8 months ago

    Manager’s and a group of doctor’s POV: you are a nurse and it’s your job and duty to do that.

    They’re completely right. If you disagree strongly enough, the only honorable thing you can do is quit. You are not making any kind of statement, or being “rebellious”, by insisting on doing a half-assed job. You’re simply being dishonest and providing inadequate care.

    Nurses are overworked and spread too thin, but that’s not something your current behavior will fix, or even protest.

    Plus, we know better than him what’s good for him.

    They should. That’s their job, and what they went to school for. It is not a nurse’s place to override their decisions (except in emergencies, of course). That’s what you signed up for when you took the job. Hell, listening to your manager is a basic requirement of most jobs, healthcare or otherwise. That’s Employment 101.

    Patients are often stubborn, ignorant, and it’s possible that several of them wouldn’t be in the hospital in the first place if they took their health seriously.

    If you take someone’s autonomy so seriously that you’re willing to respect and tolerate their “bad choices”, that’s perfectly fine, but nursing is by no means the right job for you. It’s not the mindset that upsets me - it’s that you’re working in the worst, least compatible field possible. I hope you’re able to find something else soon.