I don’t know what’s more appalling, the number of antivax nurses or the number of people who reference their antivax nurse friends as authoritative sources. They are not doctors. They are not pathologisists. They are not immunologists, biologists, chemists, neurologists, or any other relevant ologists you can think of.
I don’t trust the Jiffy Lube oil change tech to diagnose my car’s power loss, but I guarantee they’ll have some anecdotal ideas because they “hear” about things all the time. I don’t trust an experienced mechanic to give a proper statement on reliability, either, because a mechanic will only see cars when they’re broken, biasing the sample.
So how do nurses become the voice of fact on this? I mean, I know why. It’s confirmation bias. This is more me screaming into the void, fuckin why?
Oh, I hear ya. It’s super frustrating. It’s often presented as as weird sort of “speaking truth to power” as well. “Doctors don’t know anything - my nurse friend says …”
I think a whole lot of it comes from the fact that doctors just don’t spend as much time with patients as nurses do. Nurses build a relationship with people and the doctor just swoops in for a few minutes here and there.
People trust a friend over an authority nine times out of ten. :-(
I don’t know what’s more appalling, the number of antivax nurses or the number of people who reference their antivax nurse friends as authoritative sources. They are not doctors. They are not pathologisists. They are not immunologists, biologists, chemists, neurologists, or any other relevant ologists you can think of.
I don’t trust the Jiffy Lube oil change tech to diagnose my car’s power loss, but I guarantee they’ll have some anecdotal ideas because they “hear” about things all the time. I don’t trust an experienced mechanic to give a proper statement on reliability, either, because a mechanic will only see cars when they’re broken, biasing the sample.
So how do nurses become the voice of fact on this? I mean, I know why. It’s confirmation bias. This is more me screaming into the void, fuckin why?
Oh, I hear ya. It’s super frustrating. It’s often presented as as weird sort of “speaking truth to power” as well. “Doctors don’t know anything - my nurse friend says …”
I think a whole lot of it comes from the fact that doctors just don’t spend as much time with patients as nurses do. Nurses build a relationship with people and the doctor just swoops in for a few minutes here and there.
People trust a friend over an authority nine times out of ten. :-(