[hospitalstaph]

Originally Posted by caliotter3

None of this will be a problem anymore once you become an RN.

Oh if only that were true. I am working on my RN-to-BSN, but I still get "so when will you been done with your nursing degree?" They seem so confused when I explain that I am an RN now! It is even more confusing to them that my job description will not change once I obtain my BSN.

I should point out that I have NEVER had another nurse ask me if I was going to get my BSN after finishing my ADN.

It is irritating when you feel like others may be challenging your education and hard work, but I always try to picture them trying to do the same thing, and it just makes me laugh!

[MrsCaseyRN]

I agree with the replie to just say, I'm an LPN going for my RN". Enough said. Even when you're an RN (which I am) people will still not get what you do. Yep, I've had many people think all nurses just give meds and "wipe butts". You'll always have that pt that thinks doctor is the only one they should be concerned with. Its okay to explain your education but don't feel you have to justify it.

[gt4everpn]

Originally Posted by Falon

GT sometimes you just have to stop explaining things to thick headed people Lol.

The average 19 year old is going to school and maybe making a few bucks doing a PT job somewhere.

You are an LPN in NYC and we have the potential to make a very decent living in this part of the country. People are raising families off of LPN money and you at only 19 with no baggage are probably doing very well for yourself.

So tell your friends, loved ones, and other nosy people who don't get it after the first explanation:

"I'm an LPN, A NURSE, I make good money and that's more than the average 19 year old can say."

Thanks, Falon!! this may be alittle cocky of me to say but thanks anyway, I'll give it a try!

[JessieRN]

I agree. Don't work about what others think. Correct misconceptions if you feel you must. And it will be years before the age thing gets better. I recently had a patient refuse to have me as a nurse becuase a 12 yr old could in no way be a good nurse. Patients ask me all the time if I am really old enough to be a nurse.

[bigsyis]

I had a gentleman in a 4 bed ward one night who used all of those same questions on me and then wanted to know if I was nurse, where my cap was? I told him to watch me throughout the evening (3-11) and then let me know at the end of the shift if he thought that I was a nurse or not. He was convinced, and said that until he watched me work he didn't know that an LPN "could be a real nurse." That was on a cardiac/ICU stepdown unit in 1984.

[queenjean]

I was an LPN for many years, and now am an RN.

When people asked me my job, I said I was a nurse. When they asked me what I was going to school for, I'd say I was advancing my nursing degree. If they wanted specifics, I'd tell them, but some people just get lost in the LPN-ADN-RN-BSN-etc shuffle.