In a hospital setting, nurses are invaluable! They are the caregivers! Doctors give the orders and nurses carry them out! A doctor couldn't do his/her job properly without the aid of nurses. But a nurse can function quite well without the help of a doctor! Because nurses can't do their jobs without doctors orders, legally, I would have to say that they are interdependent, and one is no more valuable than the other!

This is just my 2 cent opinion while you in the hospital that nurses have a more focus than physicians, it is part of what makes their practice unique. A nurse looks at a patient as a whole, incuding their family, living arrangements, community and lifestyle, rather than focusing only on symptoms or disease progression. Many patients complain these days that physicians are so pressed for time that they are very impersonal. Nurses on the other hand often focus on building relationships with their patients based on trust ...

This is just my 2 cent opinion while you in the hospital that nurses have a more focus than physicians, it is part of what makes their practice unique. A nurse looks at a patient as a whole, incuding their family, living arrangements, community and lifestyle, rather than focusing only on symptoms or disease progression. Many patients complain these days that physicians are so pressed for time that they are very impersonal. Nurses on the other hand often focus on building relationships with their patients based on trust and communication. Many nurses are also used to incorporating complementary therapy practices into their patient's care - from the simple back rub or warm compresses to ease pain from an IV antibiotic, to modalities that may require further training such as Healing Touch. Nurses are also generally thought of as one of the most trust-worthy professions by the general public.

Yes. We can survive without doctors, however, they cant survive without nurses.