I hear much talk from nurses who claim to be patient's advocates. What measures do you take or go to, to be YOUR patient's advocate? Will you go head to head with a doctor? How about another nurse? What about the doctors nurse? How far are YOU willing to go to see that your patient's get great patient care?

I do whatever is needed for my patient.I have "bugged" dr's.other nurses and ancillary staff for the good of my pt.

i once had to have the dr threatened that we were going to call the medical director if he didnt come in to  see  the pt.Its a shame it had to occur

I have gone nose to nose with other nurses and MD's as well as ancillary staff. I have utilized the ethics committee for a patient who did not want to be intubated, and MD's wanted to. I have gone to unit medical director when I felt the MD attempting to insert central line was hurting patient with horrible technique. Our job is to be patient advocates, not worry about how other's feel about us personally.

So true kayakrn7

I have gone up against doctors, other nurses and especially nursing supervisors in order to find a way to help my patients get the help that they need.  The most pathetic situation involved my attempts to hook up patients in great financial need with the durg companies that offered patient assistance programs so that those in the most need could stay on the meds that did them the most good.  My supervisor told me that I was not to be doing this kind of thing as it was "not my job"!  So I would stay after all my work was done for the day, and do the paperwork after everyone was gone from the clinic.  If it was not my job, who's was it??  Most of the nurses didn't want to take on this type of thing as it was "extra" work and they didn't care enough to want to put themselves out.  I am not trying to pin any haloes on my head, but this is the reason I became a nurse in the first place, to be able to reach out and help those who needed help and take advantage of the avenues open to me that were not open to the public.  Thank goodness times have changed and the drug companies have gone public with these programs so more people can become part of them.  I could go on and on about the lack of empathy and understanding in our profession, but I will just say that there were more than a few times that I was ashamed of my fellow medical professionals for their talent  for ignoring the needs of our fellow human beings.

 All the way!