llc, they don't teach you abour ref numbers in nursing school. could you read a tele strip for me? no? is it because you are dumb or because it's something you've never learned? big difference there
and if your hospital is anything like mine, nurses rarely have a need for that type of knowledge (ref numbers) anyway. secretaries order supplies and typically if a secretary isn't around, the manager or supervisor does it.
nurses who work in a unit (icu, cvicu, sicu, nicu, micu--whatever) are more specialized but that doesn't mean they automatically know more. if i had to select the specialization that had the largest knowledge base, i'd go with er nurses--they have to be capable of dealing with anything that walks through the door.
nurses that work on a floor aren't more likely to make mistakes because they are stupid--they are more likely to make mistakes because they have 3-12 times as many patients to take care of. and sometimes they have patients who really shouldn't be on the floor anyway--but nurses don't make that choice. they have to prioritize what needs to be done and crappy as it may be, someone's loved one is always a low priority. patient 1 wants their pain medicine, patient 2 has their call light on even though someone was just in the room so who knows what she'll want, patient 3 needs a new iv, patient 4's admission still needs to be completed, patient 5 is confused and since the family wouldn't stay with him he's now out wandering the hall with no clothes on, and patient 6 just had his surgical wound open and his guts are being held in while the or is preparing for his emergency surgery--a nurse can only be with one of them at any one time!
being short staffed and overloaded with patients doesn't make mistakes acceptable--but it does make it more likely they will happen. nurses are human and humans make mistakes.
and all that said--doctor's don't get to fire nurses unless the nurse works for them. in a hospital setting, nurses do not typically work for the dr. i know plenty of dr's who've complained about various nurses but they've not lost their jobs for it. but even then, nurses aren't afraid of losing their jobs because they can walk into damn near any establishment in the country and be hired by someone else. when you know you won't be out of a job for more than the time it takes you to fill out an application, job security is not a fear. loosing their license is another matter--but dr.s (or hospitals) are not the ones who determine that.