A Facebook pal and classmate posted this and I had to share. At just shy of 60 years from the writing of this passage, APRNs have almost managed to get the phrase "physician extender" out of the vocabulary, and RNs are continually ranked the highest in professionalism and respectability in the healthcare field. Enjoy how far we have come!
The Handmaiden
Nursing is an extension or component part of medicine;
--Nurses are physical extensions of the doctors
--Nursing work is solely delegated medical work done under the close control of a doctor
--Nursing is a part of medicine’s business, and doctors can speak for nurses.
Because the nurse is no more than a participant in medical care, the nurse is expected to obey the doctor.
Nurses are not expected to challenge doctors even if they believe the doctor to be making mistakes which are endangering the patient’s life.
If the nurse carries out the orders of the doctor without question the nurse will not be at fault even if s(he) believes on reasonable grounds that the doctor’s orders are incorrect or immoral and may endanger the patient.
--Even if the nurse performs activities which s(he) knows to be morally wrong, the nurse can be exonerated if s(he) were ordered to do so by the doctor.
The nursing profession is the handmaiden of medicine and the final success of the treatment of disease is often bound up with the efficiency of both. Hon. Dr. Parr, Hansard, 9 September 1953.
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