Thank you, Dr Olson, for your thoughtful reflection in your "Behind Closed Doors" editorial.1 I am delighted to say that, during the 2.5 decades of my nursing career, I have witnessed more nurses finding their place and voice as valued members of interdisciplinary teams. Gone are the days of nurses giving up their chair so a doctor can take a seat. I have to agree that nurses bring a knowledge base to our practice and management of patients that we can share with other disciplines. Not so long ago, I had a physician "teach" me how to place a chuck under a patient by rolling the patient side to side and then use the chuck to boost the patient up! You see, although she had been a physician for many, many years, it wasn't until her elderly mother became ill that she learned this technique from a nurse while visiting her mom in Canada. She was so excited about this newly found knowledge that she wanted all the nurses at her hospital to know about it. Little did she know this is taught in Nursing Foundations early in the nursing academic cycle. This story may sound funny, but it is true, and until we as nurses feel comfortable sharing our thoughts and ideas with the members of our patient care "team," we are doing our profession a disservice. Nurses know things that physicians do not know, and vice versa. So, I applaud you Dr Olson for encouraging nurses in all seasons of their career to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Speak up with that better idea for documentation, share the struggles at the bedside, suggest practice change that is more efficient, teach the resident about nursing management of an external ventricular drain, and be part of the culture change that raises up the voice of the nurse. There is nothing more valuable than a respectful conversation with good intention.
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