Introduction from new member

grnvillechick · Jul 20, 2001

Hi Sherry!!! Welcome aboard...I am sure this site will be insightful for you..but do not let it scare you away either!!! I have been in nursing for a mere 10 years...and it has flown by. I still love it as much as I did when I was a new nurse like you will soon be!!!! know you have a friend here in Alabama...feel free to e me anytime...and best wishes to you on your boards!!! trisha

BrandyBSN · Jul 20, 2001

Welcome! I am also a BSN student who will be graduating in May 2002, just 5 months behind you! Welcome to the bulletin boards! They are a big help, and offer a great amount of support! Don't miss the Student Nurses forum as well!

Brandy

julspa · Jul 22, 2001

Hi, I am a very nervous(?) student about to begin my sophmore year in the BSN program. I have a degree in Radiology, so I have transferred my credits. I need help. My husband brought up a point to me and I just want to make sure I make more sense than him. He says nurses don't get respect and are nothing more than maids and housekeepers. I wanted to get into nursing because of the medical knowledge and the hope that I would get a smidge more respect for my knowledge than I did as an RT. He says I'll get responsibilities without authority and that will cause me many hours of frustration----something I don't need--got enough at home. I am taking his suggestion to talk to a nurse---hence this posting. Please someone respond.

rninformatics, DNP, RN · Jul 23, 2001

Welcome aboard Brandy!

I've been an RN for 16 years and can remember feeling like nursing school would never end!. I've returned to school x2 including being currently a Masters in Nursing Candidate at the University of Colorado's on-line degree program in Informatics.

Please feel free to visit the Nursing Informatics forum and visit my website at

http://informatics.nurses.nu

Hello from Chicago!

BrandyBSN · Jul 23, 2001

Unfortunately, He is partially right, especially when are patients and other people see us as he does, maids and housekeepers. Logic tells us that this is not so! Otherwise, very ill patients would be checked in to a Holiday Inn, not in to the hospital. In many cases, you dont just get respect because of the fact that you are a nurse, you have to earn it by proving (repeatedly) that you are a knowledgeable asset to your profession.

Throught history, nurses have fought the maid-housekeeper stigma. It is improving, but there is still a lot of room for more. Make yourself known, you have a lot of knowledge, share it with EVERYONE. Never let yourself be treated like a maid, you know that you are more than that, and you have to prove to others that you are more than that. I know that it is tough to have to prove yourself, and not to just be excepted as a knowing professional, but thats the way it is, and can be rough.

Just remember that you are not alone, and we are all working to change this stigma! If you dont act like a housekeeper, people are a lot less likely to think that is all you are.

ps, he is your husband, kick him in the tush and remind him that you need his support, not hinderance and critique!

hoolahan, ASN, RN · Jul 23, 2001

Hello and welcome