You’re wrong, i’m right because I was a Nurse.

We all get those uppity patients once in a while who think they know it all. Give a patient an inch of information thats somewhat techincal and the’ll run a mile with it. Show one www.webmd.com and they think they know as much as a pharmacist. Suggest something and you’ll get 15 printed out pages from message boards from ‘medical professionals’ (we all know doctors just sit around on message boards all day) saying how wrong you are. Sometimes I hate the internet, and wish all the patients were dumb, compliant, and happy.
One class of patient though really really bug me. Ex-Nurses. Thats right, nurses. Especially older nurses that have long since been retired. We all know that once you become an RN, it doesnt matter how long you’ve been out of practice, you must know 1000x more than my dumb-PharmD ass about the latest treatments. You’ll argue me to death about therapies and shit that you cant even prounounce let alone know whats its MOA is. I want to tell these people:
“Bitch please! When you were a nurse you only had morphine, aspirin and digoxin! You’re so dumb that you still thing MAO-I’s are first line for depression! ”
(i can hear all the pharmacists laughing at the MAO-I joke, if you’re not a pharmacist you wont get it.)
But what gets me, is that now i’m seeing not RN’s getting uppity, but like Nursing Assistants and Medical Assistants. Just because you call in prescriptions doesnt mean that you know more about the medication as I do, or can belittle me with the “Yeah, i know, im an Medical Assistant” bit.
But ya know what, these people are quick to belittle you, but are the first ones to call up with a stupid question that they should know because “They are/were a nurse”.

Comments #

Comment by Art Vandelay on 2006-03-10 17:12:11 -0800 #

Yo angry pharmacist……have you seen this? http://rxradio.blogspot.com/ It is my opinion that this site needs to be relentlessly mocked. if you agree, please join me in this effort.
The Drugnazi.

Comment by peoplearedumb on 2006-06-05 16:56:57 -0700 #

yes, i just love it when idiot people come in the pharmacy to ask me a question, even though (they think) they already know the answer. They will tell ME how it is and what the drug does and what is the best. But, hey, what do i know? i just went to school for 6 years

Comment by rxcat on 2006-07-15 20:39:00 -0700 #

I was just catching up on some of your rants. I totally agree with this one!!! My favorites are the patients that say “My husband is a doctor or my wife is a nurse”. They’re the first ones to call in with questions when they get home. The best response to the offer to counsel that I ever got was a woman who told me that she didn’t need a counsel because her husband was a certified pharmacy tech. I could tell by the insurance that he worked at a mail-order place. I’m sure he could counsel just a well as me. Not to offend any techs…..I love you all but give me a break!!

Comment by Ein Lo Sechel on 2006-10-04 09:35:02 -0700 #

I live in 34033 Las Vegas, Nevada. Have you been here before?

Comment by Melissa on 2006-10-05 11:52:07 -0700 #

First of all, you are very funny. Secondly, nurses are pretty bad.. but what’s worse is relatives of doctors. I have a friend at school (currently in pharmacy school) who told me this wonderful story: Lady comes in with a prescription for Tramadol 25mg. Yes, tramadol comes in 50mg but they decided the doctor was most likely confused and so they told her they were going to call on it. She told them, “Well, my brother is a doctor and he said it DOES come in 25mg tablets.. so you’re wrong” Yes, well since your brother is here filling the prescription…

Comment by WarNerd1 on 2006-12-31 04:09:41 -0800 #

First, a disclaimer – “so there’re good nurses.. blah, blah…”
Put it this way, most nurses I have seen past a certain age, say 30 (a large demographic) and not married to a doctor, all tend to become know-it-all embittered sociopaths. They seem to thrive on making life miserable for other non-MD health practitioners.
What some of them do in the wards to their infirmed or incapacitated patients is almost criminal. Sometimes I wonder whether vengeful bitch is part of the nurse life-cycle.

Comment by Tiny Shrink on 2007-09-23 17:30:21 -0700 #

“Put it this way, most nurses I have seen past a certain age, say 30 (a large demographic) and not married to a doctor, all tend to become know-it-all embittered sociopaths. They seem to thrive on making life miserable for other non-MD health practitioners.”
I’d like to change “non-MD health practitioners” to “non-RN”. The same demographic you refer to also likes taking out their frustrations with life on the MD’s because an MD gave them hell once.
Also, this MD-to-be got the MAO-I joke…

Comment by Shane Hester CPhT on 2009-06-29 08:31:48 -0700 #

A guy comes up with a 2-pak of nyquil and asks if its ok for cough. the pharmacist i was working with said it does help with cough but also has alot of other unneeded ingredients and recommended delsym after the patient said he needed something just for cough. the guy then, without even breaking a sweat, tells the pharmacist that his real estate agent mentioned using nyquil when he has a cough so he will just buy that.