By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor
The April Reflections essay in AJN—Reflections is a monthly one-page column we’ve run for many years inside the back cover—has an unambiguous title: “A Smart Doctor Listens to the Nurses.”
Written by a pediatrician whose mother was a nurse, it gives a vision of continuity in the health care profession rather than opposition, of mothers and daughters, and seems particularly relevant as debates continue about whether or not nurses should be allowed to practice to the full scope of their abilities and knowledge. Here’s the opening paragraph, but it’s free, and we hope you’ll read the entire short essay:
I was in the hall outside a patient’s room with a new crop of interns and residents. As usual, they had all made rounds first thing in the morning, checked on new lab results, examined their patients, and were now ready to report everything to me, the attending. And, as usual, these bright, eager residents, though anxious to do a good job, hadn’t thought to talk with the nurses taking care of their patients.
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