I hate being called "nurse"!!!

[Fuji Girl]

No offense to nurses, of course. The world needs more good nurses. But not ALL medical women are nurses!

I was riding on the lake path this evening, when I noticed a group of people collected up ahead. As I slowed down, I saw a young woman lying on the ground. She was all scratched up with blood all over her face, she was dazed and completely disoriented. I introduced myself to her, told her I was a doctor, and did a quick exam. Tested her reflexes, looked into her pupils, looked into her mouth, checked her ribs for fracture, tested the strength in her extremities, stabilized her neck, checked her pulse, assessed her mental status, reassured her that her teeth were all still in her mouth, etc. From what I could gather from the crowd, she had been running and collided with a cyclist (who was still at the scene, very concerned). The girl was bad off - she hit her head pretty hard.

When the paramedics got there, I started to give them a history, when one of them asked me "Are you a nurse?" I said no, I'm a doctor. After that, THEY STOPPED LISTENING TO ME. In fact, they completely ignored me and walked away to check out the patient on their own. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I thought I was imagining it, until 2 girls thanked me for taking charge of the situation and told me they thought the paramedics were jack-a*ses for not even listening to me.

I did not obtain this education (4 yrs of med school + 5 yrs of residency + 2 yrs of fellowship) to be called nurse and ignored by some punk-a*s SOBs who think they're better than me just because I have an 46,XX karyotype. Ooo, that makes me so mad!