Mommy I don't want to be a nurse!

Nurses General Nursing

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Just thought I'd share a "moment" that I had with my 4 1/2

year old daughters this morning.

We were playing on the bed and she said "Mommy I want to be like you someday". After hugs, I asked her if she wanted to be a nurse? She said, "No, I want to be a Doctor!" I asked her why. Her response to me was, "because I like the Doctor". Her main experiences with health care consist of the normal ocaasional trip to the ER and trips to her perdiatrician. After I thought about I realized that the scrubs I wear is her focal point. All the people in these places wear scrubs, except for the Doctor. Of all those people I can honestly say, few of them smiled and spoke nicely to her. They were the front desk people, medical records people, and MA's. The very few nurses that were involved in any of her care did of course smile and were nice but they were so few and far between that I am sure all she remembers and sees are the busy and down to business non nursing staff that look like mommy who is a nurse in thier scrubs. I guess I'm bringing up the issue of uniforms or something that could help identify us as nurses and seperate from the non nursing staff. My daughter wants to be a Dr. because that is who has been geniunly interested in making her feel better (besides mommy of course). The street cloths and lab coats never scare her. I'm beginning to think all those toon scrubs along with all the other visual stimulants in a clinical setting are just too much. Think about it, the wall paper, the ceilings, pictures, toys, books, not to mention all the strange equipment and some of them embelished with her favorite characters too. It is the one who is dressed like everyone else in the real world that she feels comfortable with! All those in toon and fancy prints just let her know they match the wall paper and I'm not so sure I really like this place to begin with, so that person in the scrub I probably don't like either. Just my thoughts on her perspective. By the way, I wear those toon and print scrubs, so don't get me wrong. I am just trying to re-evaluate if I should continue now that my daughter is so sure she doesn't want to be a nurse, but would be a doctor. So much to learn from the little ones. Sigh. Your opinions and thoughts appreciated. Oh, she also knows as a nurse I have worked nights and weekends and left her home with so mommy could take care of other people. What a bummer for a little one! Family time first in my life from now on!

I think kids get kind of a jaundiced view about nurses just in the course of visiting the pediatrician. My kids did, anyway. The doctor never gives them shots or takes their blood! It's always the nurse, isn't it? Perhaps our pediatrician was different, but it seems like it was the same when I was a kid, too. I only remember one shot from a doc when I was a kid and I was REALLY young - it was a housecall, believe it or not!

Love

Dennie

That is so true NurseDennie, but I am a ped nurse and most of the time in my experience if the child knows you care and you are only doing it to make them feel better they are not afraid and are hugging me at the end of the procedure. I guess part of my point is that all the people that my daughter has had contact with were not nurses at all, but she thinks they are because we all wear the scrubs and she is basing her opinions on this, even though they are incorrect assumptions on her part, it is the way it is percieved to her. What else could she think other than all people who wear scrubs are nurses and the Dr. wears a white coat. In her experience it has not been uncommon, in fact it has been the norm for the Dr. to give her shots because there is no nurse there to do it!

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Hello huganurse, :)

Have you asked your daughter if she would prefer to see her mommy wear white instead of your scrubs when you go to work?

See what she says to this question. With children, it is best to continue to stay with their thought on things in order to get to the bottom line of what they are really talking about. I've done this with my own children when they were very small and have been surprised at some of their responses to certain things at their various ages during their childhood. It's worth a try. ;)

I've also worked on pediatric units before, but have never heard any comments from parents or children about what the staff wore. :)

My heart yearns to have a kid, for this reason. I'd be explaining stuff left and right, from their perspective. I'd be asking my kids why they think the way they do. I'd probably ask them more questions than they ask me.

I will only wear solid color scrubs, and my trusty gait belt.

One thing I would love to explain to my kid (if I had any) would be what a photon is, and what happens when a photon strikes rhodopsin. It took me a long time to be able to teach that to myself, and if I could get my kid to understand that, and explain it back to me, at an early age, I think I'd have a "dad moment"

hug a nurse.......

as usual micro tangents off.......

picture micro as a child 8 years old, doing great after yet another surgery about two days away from going home.....

micro(aka: names to be changed to protect the innocent) and ricky got into wheelchair on the unit......and had wheelchair races in the halls.........micro ran down dr. and he fell down.....he laughed but the nurse scolded us and sent us to our room.....

we was bad.....hehehehehe

wonder if ricky remembers this also

heheheheehe

hug a nurse,

your daughter sounds like a cool little girl....and she has a cool mom

she will be great.....and if she becomes a doc.....then you can influence her as to how to treat nurses.......and patients.......

my niece is going into premed.......too cool.....I have already told her....she has to be my attending at the nursing home/retirement village of my choosing if I am around after 77.....

luv you

hug a nurse

micro

Specializes in Trauma acute surgery, surgical ICU, PACU.

Hey, I thought I wanted to ba a doctor, too, when I was young.

It wasn't until I got older when I realized I was wrong - when I was able to understand the complexities of the different health care roles.....

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