As an intern I thought that being a good physician meant you had to be the smartest person in the room. I later learned that it was more about how you use the expertise of the smart people around you to get the best outcome for the patient. Good luck interns! #MedTwitter
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But enough of the high flying stuff. Here’s something practical: take care of your nurses! Don’t wait for them to page you. Go to them proactively and ask, “are you concerned about anything for this patient?” This simple act achieves two things:
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1: It lets the nurse know you’re approachable and want an open line of communication.
2: It lets the nurse know that you care about them and value their expertise

A good nurse/physician team can deliver great care for a patient. But not if communication and trust b/w is poor. 3/

On the theme of caring about nurses, clean up after yourself! In fact, try to leave the room (and pt) in better shape than when you came in. Don’t leave gel, gauze, and needles lying around. Pick everything up. Everything. Button back the gown. Put the sheets & bedrail back. 4/

But most importantly: do not ever be dismissive of your nurses. Ever.

*EVER*

They spend more time with your pts. They know when things aren’t right. Nurse worry is highly predictive of patient decompensation. If they are worried, listen > talk

Link: https://bit.ly/3gbGnAG 
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If you take care of your nurses they’ll take care of you. You’ll get the best info for AM rounds, they’ll let you know what your attending likes, they’ll give you great advice, you’ll get paged less overnight with mundane stuff. And guess what?

You’ll be a better physician.

fin