[bradcook128]

I don't have a problem being called a nurse......I DO have a problem with instructors refering to nurses as SHE or HER.....which happened all the time while I was in nursing school!!!!!!!

[bradcook128]

Originally Posted by ZASHAGALKA

I have no problem being a nurse.

This is my problem: the term, nurse, is a description as opposed to doctor, which is a title.

This site has alot of insight into why nurses aren't treated like 'professionals'. Maybe part of it is because 'Dr.' Smith refers to the bedside nurse as 'Kelly', or 'Amanda', or in my case, 'Tim'.

I used to know a little bit of Russian, and like many languages, Spanish included, Russian conjugates verbs into 6 forms: I, you (informal), we, they, you (formal), us. You talk to peers and those above you in the formal 'you'. You talk to friends, children and subordinates in the informal 'you'.

DR. is a formal 'you' address. Referring to you by your first name is a very informal 'you' address. While I will submit that this arrangement between doctor and nurse is the evolutionary model of nursing's past, it is not a recipe for 'professionalism' in the future.

I do not object in the least to being referred to as a nurse. I object to the fact that my training and experience are just so many useless letters AFTER my name instead of a key address IN FRONT OF my name. And even then, my objection is only because, that isn't very 'professional'.

~faith,
Timothy.

Wow!! What an excellent post....I agree FULLY. Now the delima is how to start a change into a higher level of professionalism......any ideas??

[rogramjet]

I agree. Every nursing text I have ever seen does that, it always ticked me off in school too.

Originally Posted by bradcook128

I don't have a problem being called a nurse......I DO have a problem with instructors refering to nurses as SHE or HER.....which happened all the time while I was in nursing school!!!!!!!

[sgent]

who graduated Med School in the early/mid seventies (one of the first ten female physicians in her state). On her first job interview, she was being interviewed in a rural area by the town council, who assumed for males she was only a doctor from the waist up. It cuts both ways. According to her she has also been mistaken for a candystriper (her words) more than once when doing rounds.

Now we don't think about it as much since med schools are 50/50 male/female, but for a long time Doctor's were only male. I think we just have to push ahead, grin and bear it to an extent.

[wtbcrna]

There is always that stigma about being guy and a nurse. Someone always assumes you're probably gay (which I am not;no offense meant) or a wuss etc. Personally though since I joined the Air Force I love it we are almost a 50/50 split male/female nurses in the Air Force, and the ICU where I work now is more like a 80%male/20%female split. We have a running joke where we are called the boy nurses.
We still have what is called the old guard in Air Force. Which is pretty much female, and there is definitely some of them that don't like male nurses...lol ( they are old and retiring fast,though). I believe in general male nurses tend to do better because of the stigma. We try harder.
My first preceptor after I graduated from LVN school on my first day told me she didn't really like male nurses. I just grinned did what I needed to do and went on. A week later she told me she had changed her mind and really liked working with me.

[mwbeah]

The first nursing school in the world was started in India in about 250 BC. It was attended by only men (they were pretty harsh to women at that time). Our history in nursing runs deep, be proud of being a nurse and throw this bit of trivia to the next person who gives you a hard time.

Mike

[mwbeah]

Originally Posted by mwbeah

The first nursing school in the world was started in India in about 250 BC. It was attended by only men (they were pretty harsh to women at that time). Our history in nursing runs deep, be proud of being a nurse and throw this bit of trivia to the next person who gives you a hard time.

Mike

This is some background on that first nursing course in India.

The Charaka (Vol I, Section xv) states these men should be, "of good behavior, distinguished for purity, possessed of cleverness and skill, imbued with kindness, skilled in every service a patient may require, competent to cook food, skilled in bathing and washing the patient, rubbing and massaging the limbs, lifting and assisting him to walk about, well skilled in making and cleansing of beds, readying the patient and skillful in waiting upon one that is ailing and never unwilling to do anything that may be ordered."

During the Byzantine Empire nursing was a separate occupation practiced primarily by men. In the New Testament, the good Samaritan paid the innkeeper to provide care for an injured man. No one thought it odd that a man should by paid to provide nursing care.

In every plague that swept Europe men risked their lives to provide nursing care. A group of men, the Parabolani, in 300 AD started a hospital and provided nursing care during the Black Plague epidemic.

Here is the site for that history:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/6011/index.html

Mike

[nursemike]

I have no problem at all with "nurse," and I'm not offended by "male nurse." I don't refer to myself as a male nurse, since I'm way too ugly to be mistaken for a female, but most of the time I hear it used descriptively, much as another nurse might be the "red-haired nurse" or the "older nurse." On some shifts, I'm the short, fat, male nurse with a moustache, but usually "male" narrows the field considerably. If a patient asks, "Are you a male nurse?" I generally answer, "Yes, I'm a nurse."

I'm a new nurse, so I don't feel comfortable calling doctors by their first names, but some nurses do with some doctors. I don't see a problem with that, but I don't see a problem if a doctor prefers to be adressed as "Doctor," either. It's interesting, though, that only doctors go by titles--our CEO is Bruce, and there are many co-workers whose last names I don't even know (they're on our badges, but in smaller print.) We used to have an older, Asian nurse whom everyone addressed as Mrs. xxxxx, but that may just have been due to difficulty pronouncing her first name. (I never asked. Actually, the veneration seemed appropriate--she was very old, and very dignified.)

[CarlJ]

No, I don't mind being called a nurse. I've worked very hard to earn that title. But the word is very feminine. To me, the act of nursing (i.e. breast feeding) will never allow the title of nuse to be netural, so I wouldn't mind if another term is found. I wonder what they were called before women took over the role? Was it nurse?

Carl

[Ekklesia]

Originally Posted by mwbeah

This is some background on that first nursing course in India.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/6011/index.html

mwbeah, thanks for the history lesson. Very interesting, I had no idea.