3 Good Reasons Why Doctors Should Listen To Nurses More

Doctors and nurses have different training, different scope, and different relationships with patients. Those differences are exactly why physicians need to hear what nurses are telling them.

1. Nurses hear more from patients.

Nurses are with patients continuously, from admission through discharge. That sustained presence means patients share things with nurses they never say to doctors. Concerns, fears, confusion about the plan of care, things that matter clinically.

A ward nurse: “A surgical patient reached out to me after his pre-op conversation with the doctor. He had several questions he was too uncomfortable to ask the physician. I had to request that the doctor see him again, because the patient’s confusion about the procedure could have invalidated his consent.”

When the plan of care isn’t working or a patient develops unexpected adverse reactions, nurses know first.

2. Nurses catch medication errors.

Fatigue, overnight pages, and a heavy patient load affect physicians’ accuracy. New interns on unfamiliar floors are especially vulnerable. Veteran nurses recognize these patterns and quietly prevent errors before they reach patients.

A physician admitted: “I had two patients with the same name on different floors. When the nurse paged me about pain, I mixed up the information. She had to call me twice to make sure I wasn’t ordering a pain reliever for the patient who was allergic to it.”

3. Dismissing nurses costs lives.

At a Pacific Coast Obstetrical and Gynecological Society meeting, a case was reported involving a surgeon who responded to a nurse’s incorrect sponge count with a sarcastic remark, suggesting the nurse had obsessive compulsive disorder and ordering an X-ray only to placate her. The X-ray confirmed a retained sponge.

Hierarchy that silences nurses is a patient safety hazard. The nurse’s report is clinical information, not an opinion to be weighed against professional rank.