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Back Going Under Save as PDF
Chapters (70)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  3. DEDICATION
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART I BIRTH
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EIGHT
  14. NINE
  15. TEN
  16. ELEVEN
  17. TWELVE
  18. THIRTEEN
  19. FOURTEEN
  20. FIFTEEN
  21. PART II LIFE
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. TWENTY-ONE
  28. TWENTY-TWO
  29. TWENTY-THREE
  30. TWENTY-FOUR
  31. TWENTY-FIVE
  32. TWENTY-SIX
  33. TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. TWENTY-NINE
  36. THIRTY
  37. THIRTY-ONE
  38. THIRTY-TWO
  39. THIRTY-THREE
  40. THIRTY-FOUR
  41. PART III DEATH
  42. THIRTY-FIVE
  43. THIRTY-SIX
  44. THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. THIRTY-NINE
  47. FORTY
  48. FORTY-ONE
  49. FORTY-TWO
  50. FORTY-THREE
  51. FORTY-FOUR
  52. FORTY-FIVE
  53. FORTY-SIX
  54. FORTY-SEVEN
  55. FORTY-EIGHT
  56. FORTY-NINE
  57. FIFTY
  58. FIFTY-ONE
  59. FIFTY-TWO
  60. FIFTY-THREE
  61. FIFTY-FOUR
  62. FIFTY-FIVE
  63. FIFTY-SIX
  64. FIFTY-SEVEN
  65. FIFTY-EIGHT
  66. FIFTY-NINE
  67. SIXTY
  68. EPILOGUE
  69. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  70. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The relationship between doctors and nurses is a tricky one. There’s this misconception that everyone should feel sorry for nurses, and the doctors are always the bad guys. We are, members of the general public tell me, overpaid, arrogant and difficult to deal with. Nurses, conversely, are underpaid and overworked, and always seem to make the patients feel so much better. I hear people say all the time in social settings that their medical team ‘did nothing for them’ (aside from saving their life), but the nurses, ‘well, they were lovely’. There are even bumper stickers that say: BEHIND EVERY DOCTOR IS A SKILLED, INTELLIGENT NURSE SAVING THEIR ARSE. Of course, these are treacherous waters I’m entering—saying anything less than positive about nurses is sort of like saying anything less than positive about Nelson Mandela.

On that note, I walk into the department to meet the consultant on the floor that evening for a quick orientation, and within the first five seconds she’s warning me that the nurses in the emergency department are extremely territorial. ‘The best thing to do,’ she advises, ‘is to just let them boss you around for a while. I’m not sure why they’re like that, but if you resist they can make your life very hard.’ Then she laughs a bit nervously—this consultant emergency physician of over twenty years’ experience—leans in and says, ‘But for God’s sake, don’t tell anyone I said that.’

It takes about two days working in a public hospital as a junior doctor to realise that nurses love nothing more than bitching about how useless we are, how much more experience they have, how they always know better than us, but in the end it all comes down to one sticking point.

When a nurse doesn’t know what to do … they call a doctor.

When a nurse needs a medication charted … they call a doctor.

When the patient’s blood pressure drops even slightly … they call a doctor.

When the nurse makes a mistake and starts panicking … they call a doctor.

When someone makes a mistake and it ends up in court, the person who takes the stand will inevitably be … the doctor.

On an evening shift on the ward, a nurse of ten or more years’ experience still looks after the maximum of four or five patients. A doctor in their first week of training is looking after three wards—maybe a hundred and ten patients.