Nursing know it alls…

Nurses that think they know it all scare me! Further thoughts from my last post about nurses knowledge.  There are a lot of nurses out there that think or claim that they know everything. Stay away from them! Nurses hold a lot of responsibility in their hands, and can you imagine if you don’t know a skill and claim you do? That is setting yourself up for failure and a possible lawsuit.

Let me give you the full circle of the scenario of the nurse that thinks they know everything. They won’t ask questions or look up the correct answer but proceed on what the “think” they know. A mistake will get made. if that nurse didn’t admit to not knowing, they certainly aren’t going to admit to making a mistake. So they will blame the closest logical person. If you happen to be that person, get ready for explaining something you have or wish you had nothing to do with.

The sign of a good nurse is, no matter how long ago you graduated, admitting that you don’t know everything and asking questions when in doubt. Getting advice in nursing is considered collaboration, not weakness or ignorance. Please be the good nurse. It might save a life…