If it helps at all, if you do your job right follow the doctors orders and administer care and medications as instructed you are next to impossible to be held responsible for the patient having negative outcomes. A doctor, even a hard working one who knows their shit well and does their absolute best is still under the constant threat of a career ending lawsuit from a patient.

If it makes you feel any better he’ll be the one that gets slapped with malpractice if he fucks up. He’s inherently accepting a certain amount of liability as a doctor.

The other thing that comes to mind is he is trained specifically in his field to diagnose and treat. As a nurse you are trained to do what you do best.

That doesn’t give him a right to be on his phone all the time and be a dipshit. Eventually, that will have consequences of some sort. Currently he’s receiving less respect and earning a shitty reputation. That might come to bite him in the ass some day. Him being lax may come out in his work and bite him in the ass too at some point.

But I understand your frustration. I’ve got shitty managers who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground and I constantly question how they got and are keeping their jobs.

Speaking as a technician (associate’s degree), every engineer in my country makes easily double what I do. Doctors, lawyers, and engineers are just examples of professions that are paid more for their expertise than their actual work output. I would have to work 60-hour weeks just to get paid what a fresh engineering grad would get.

If you think you’re at the top of your pay scale and want to earn more, then you should probably think about further education or look into travel nursing if travel is interesting/a possibility for you. Some kind of specialized knowledge like radiation, imaging, or anesthesiology would probably help.

Is it too late to become a nurse practitioner?

You don’t accept it, because that’s bullshit. You also don’t accept that it’s somehow your fault that society (and your employer) is okay with that kind of injustice.

I think there are two sane choices, you named one that’s really a good idea cause you do not have to take that shit.

The other one would be sharing this situation with other nurses, forming a union or joining one, and going on strike. Letting the hospital see how well it functions when only those lazy doctors doing 1% of the necessary work and getting 2 thirds of the cake show up.

Become a doctor, then the nurses can hate you whenever you decompress too.

Years of schooling and years of experience.

Your worth, your value is not determined by what someone else makes.

Also, I’m a bit ignorant of this subject so forgive me if I get it wrong, but did he not go to school significantly longer for his MD than you did for yours?

I believe he also had to go through the hell that is residency, I didn’t believe nurses do.

If you’re envious of his salary, improve your skills, or your education. If you’re happy where you are at In life, then don’t let the fact that others make more than you interfere with that happiness.

No matter what you do, there will always be others who make more, one of those sad facts of life.

I would also ask yourself how often and how long you work compared to this doctor. I think standard for nurses is 3-4 shifts per week. Doctors work much more than this and often have out of work responsibilities as well. The hourly rate is much closer than you make it out to be.

I think you’re on the right track. First, especially with your experience, do the work and become the doctor you want them to be. And buy a Porsche.

Second, how much work did that person do to earn the degree? How much debt did that person incur?

I’ve seen many times where a person with lesser education outperforms a “superior.” It’s not really fair, but getting the degree and then the job…that’s just the way it is.

Yeah, um. I have never seen a doctors or judges salary but im as sure as anything in my life that the lowest paid one who is not specifically maybe working part time or something, is making more than double my pay.

This lazy doctor earns more than double my salary. It’s depressing.

Wait until you find out how lazy people with inherited wealth are…and they make way more than double your salary in passive gains.

Check with your employer if they will help with your continued education somehow. My employer, for example, will reimburse some tuition costs if you get a degree while working there.

As a nurse you can continue up to and including a PhD. Or you can go to medical school and become an MD. There are many options. Try to find a few that sound interesting and learn more about them.

If you feel you have unused potential, maybe making a change in your career is just what you need. Even if you just look into what it would take, it could put things in perspective for you.

You should take advantage of the free continuing education you likely get. While nurse practicioner isn’t quite as high paying you can get there without [more] debt and get raises on the way as you get more deducation.

Many trades pay big money just for having the knowledge more than doing work. Being capable =/= Doing lots of work necessarily. I know people being paid big bucks to do nothing until a specific job comes up that requires their niche knowledge. That knowledge can be so hard to find or capable people so sparse that it’s worth paying a lot to have that value on retainer.

Maybe that Dr. Is a specialist? Maybe there’s shortage? There’s plenty of possible reasons, including that person just being a bad worker. Regardless, they definitely spent near a decade to gain enough knowledge and skill to aquire that position. That’s gonna come with a larger salary.