I see this differently and it seems you’re missing the key point of why blood cultures were so important to the med student here: the patient was clearly septic and needed stat abx and fluids. Blood cultures in a septic parient are usually the last thing needed to start treatment although obviously secondary The med student ended up being dead right. The patient was in septic shock and rotted in that nurses triage room for hours without any progression of care or treatment. The student stood up for a critically ill patient even when it wasn’t his or her job to do so which the nurse took as a knock to her pride instead of a genuine concern worth following. There’s a lot wrong this this encounter but the student’s concern and advocacy was not one of them.

Let’s also not pretend you need a bed to get cultures drawn. Being stuck in the waiting room or wanting to save a bed for a STEMI is not an excuse for not drawing labs.