Talked Over As If I Weren't There: Reflections From a Nurse and Educator

Abstract

Most nurses were taught in nursing school to avoid talking over a patient as if the patient were not there. This manuscript describes the author's experience of being talked over as a patient-what it meant to her as a nurse relating to the ethics of the situation and as an educator of future nurses. The American Nurses Association's Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (2015) addresses the responsibility of nurses at all levels within an organization to sustain a work environment that ensures quality, safe patient care. Nurses who embody this responsibility are knowledgeable, skilled, and mindful of what they say and how they act and interact around, with, and over patients and toward each other.