Annette Levitt

Annette Levitt, RN, MS, Nurse Manager

Med/surg nurses also are playing an increasingly respected role in start-to-finish patient care , said Annette Levitt , MS , RN , nurse manager on two general med/surg units at Massachusetts General.

For example , she said , physicians at her hospital recently readmitted a patient with a variety of problems.The man had spent six months on a different med/surg unit in the same hospital , where the nurses got to know him and his family well.

After the patient was readmitted , nurses on both med/surg floors talked to physicians about transferring the man back to the floor where he was known , even though it might inconvenience the physicians.The physicians agreed.The patient was transferred.

The staff nurses felt empowered , Levitt said.They are the ones who made the difference.These were med/surg nurses who took it upon themselves to put the patient where he belonged.That's the kind of thing that a med/surg nurse can do on a general unit..