Dr. Murphy compares the doctor's role to that of a car mechanic and gives the majority of the healing credit to nurses. How would you rank their importance next to doctors?

Dr. Murphy compares the doctor's role to that of a car mechanic and gives the majority of the healing credit to nurses. What do you think is a nurse's most important role? How would you rank their importance next to doctors?

As someone who was raised by a nurse, I completely agree with this statement. There are soooo many times when the nurse is really the hero of medicine. My mom would often recount stories of times when she "Saved" a doctor from making a pretty big mistake becuase she caught something in the patient's chart and often times doctors rely on the opinions of their trusted nurses because they are the ones with the patient 99% of the time.
In my own experience dealing with being in a hospital, I ALWAYS asked my questions to nurses or felt that they were really the "Necks" and turned the doctors heads in the right direction!

Nurses are definitely the nurturers, the comforters. Doctors are the technicians but nurses are essential for the human side.

Nurses are the caregivers. Doctors will check their patients every day, but it is the nurses that are with the patients all day, making them comfortable. These nurses gave baths, changed clothing, administered morphine, and sat by them and listened to them, comforting them.

I think nurses are equally important as doctors. Nurses are the doctors' eyes and ears. They know the patients better as they are with them more and provide personal care. Nurses are also the ones that alert doctors to changes in a patients status and sometimes catch and correct errors in doctors' orders.

I totally agree. Nurses are closer to the patients on a personal level than doctors are. They are the actual caregivers to the patients. I've been in a hospital room when the nurse called the doctor to let him know there was a problem with medication. She probably shouldn't have called while still in the room, but I appreciated her prompt action.

I’ve many friends who are nurses. They have more interaction with the patients. Too many physicians have zero bedside manner, do not listen to their patients, have preconceived ideas, and decline to listen to nurses on the floor. I had more of a conversation regarding my history, challenges and concerns with my acupuncturist in one visit than with my internist in 14 years. My internist asks a few questions, asks for blood work, and spends about 7 minutes with me. My acupuncturist spends 20 minutes each visit checking on my current state of wellbeing.

I liked that analogy. The nuts and bolts of fixing belongs to the doctor, but the real overall perspective of what the patient needs to heal lies mostly with the nurse. Just look at their role during COVID. Patient deaths would have been even more horrible without them.

Doctors might make the diagnosis and do procedures that are above the training of the nurses but nurses are there interacting, nurturing and observing patients all day thus providing the actual care of the patient, unlike the doctor who makes the diagnosis and initial treatment then just makes sure his diagnosis was correct, of course with the nurses feedback and reports.

In addition, I have observed the interaction of nurses and doctors and the analogy of doctors could be viewed as the "mechanics" is very good.

I thought it was a perfect analogy!

I nodded my head in agreement when I read this. My father was a surgeon; my mother was a RN. Both were in Dr. Murphy’s line of thinking.

What is a doctor without a good nurse? She is with the patient more than the Dr.

In a hospital, patients see the nurses far more than the doctors. And by far more, I mean by a ratio of 95:5. Nurses are invaluable in hospital care. In doctor's offices, the ratio is more evenly distributed, but nurses still play a vital role.

The nurse /doctor relationship is complex largely because of historical differences in education, authority and gender. Because we depend on the medical profession so much we are experiencing a shortage of both nurses and doctors. As a result the role of a nurse has greatly increased to the benefit of patients. Specialization has increased the technical aspect of the surgeon and focussed even more importance on the caregiving role of the nurse. Without well-educated nurses and nurse practitioners a patient’s health would be at significantly more risk.

Great analogy! After all...nurses are the human part of medicine!

It is the Dr who prescribes and starts the process, but it is the nurse who heals. Nurses are far more hands on with a patient. If you don't have a good nurse the Dr would never know what is really happening on a daily basis with their patients, or when to change directions or when to start or stop medications etc etc. In my opinion the Dr is the shop owner and the nurses are the mechanics - Drs dictate what the problem is and the nurses fix it.

The doctor makes the orders, the nurses make it happen for the best care of the patient

I liked the comparison. While certainly many doctors are nurturers, especially women but men, too, those who consider themselves "gods" are not rare. I can only think of one or two nurses I've had who weren't warm and caring - and human.

I must agree with all the answers above.

I think that Dr Murphy had it right but today we have nurse practitioners who can do much of what a physician does. They can prescribe medications, perform minor surgeries and write for further labs, tests and consult with specialities.