Wrong reasons

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Not long ago, there was an ad running on t.v. around here for an LPN program. It opened with a woman in a business suit saying to a woman in scrubs, "Wow, you lok comfortable!" and the woman in scrubs went on to explain that she's an LPN. The ad went on to explicitly give wearing comfy scrubs to work every day as a good reason to be an LPN! Another ad that was on recently showed a woman giving another woman a list of reasons why she became a medical assistant. All good reasons, until she got to, "And that's how I met Dr. Brown!" (Or whatever name they used.) In other words, "Become a medical assistant and hook up with a doctor!"

Specializes in Nursing Ed, Ob/GYN, AD, LTC, Rehab.

Personally i think youd have to be pretty crazy to go to a place like PIMA ect. A waste of time when the credits dont transfer, talk about a shot in the foot.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
The ad went on to explicitly give wearing comfy scrubs to work every day as a good reason to be an LPN! Another ad that was on recently showed a woman giving another woman a list of reasons why she became a medical assistant. All good reasons, until she got to, "And that's how I met Dr. Brown!" (Or whatever name they used.) In other words, "Become a medical assistant and hook up with a doctor!"

Obviously the person that came up with this "ad" is not a nurse.

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Was it for an LPN program or a medical assisting program? They aren't the same thing. Usually, those TV ads are for MA programs...I've never seen one for a nursing program.

Two different ads, same school.

Hey now......I do consider wearing comfy scrubs a perk of the job. I hated getting dressed up for my office job every morning.

Perk, yes. I'm sure a lot of women got into nursing "back in the day" because they were imprssed by the old uniform. But primary reason for going into the field? Noooooooooooooooooooo.

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Huh. That's exactly the reason I put myself and my family through years of academic and clinical torture: I had my eye on a comfy set of jammies and thought, "gee, how do I get to wear those at work each day? Wait! I can become a nurse!"

They found me out.

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I think most schools that can afford to advertise cost an arm and a leg for tuition. I know that Apollo College and PIMA are always on the tube - but I wouldn't be interested in attending either of those institutions.

HA! I've seen commercials for them when we were in Pagosa Springs, CO! I thought, wow, that is a long way to advertise. And then I happened to be watching daytime TV and saw that a school in Scottsdale, AZ is advertising here, more than a thousand miles away! That's some commute when we have programs here... probably.

We do have a private school here that offers an MA program, dental assisting, medical office, LPN, and LPN-RN bridge. So it is possible to find them all under one roof. And I agree, if they put out so much money on advertising, they are probably pretty expensive. Places like these advertise every break, as opposed to the community college, which does the occasional ad but really doesn't need to.

Another wrong reason to go into nursing: I'll always have a job!! 2. For the money. I see so many people either going into nursing by themselves or encouraged by someone else for these two reasons. They go in, discover what the job is really like, then hate it, and scram when their other job of choice again has openings.

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Specializes in Neuro.

That ad reminds me of when I was in Junior High and the High School cheerleaders came to campus to recruit us to join the squad. What was the biggest perk to being a cheerleader according to them? "All the guys get to look up your skirt!"

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Another wrong reason to go into nursing: I'll always have a job!! 2. For the money. I see so many people either going into nursing by themselves or encouraged by someone else for these two reasons.

I am not sure why always having a job is a wrong reason to go into nursing. I know so many nurses and nursing students that chose nursing because of the vast opportunities within the field. Sure this isn't the only reason they wanted a job in this profession but it certainly played a part. after earning a degree in psychology i realized the limited opportunities i would have in this field and this feeling helped solidify my interest in a career in nursing. and now i absolutely LOVE nursing.

Another ad that was on recently showed a woman giving another woman a list of reasons why she became a medical assistant. All good reasons, until she got to, "And that's how I met Dr. Brown!" (Or whatever name they used.) In other words, "Become a medical assistant and hook up with a doctor!"

In my professional issues class I did a presentation about nursing images in media and society. This, along with the sexy nurse and the handmaiden nurse, was one of the biggest misconceptions about nursing today. sure it happens- a doctor falls in love with a nurse and sweeps her/him off their feet, but most often when i talk to nurses they couldn't imagine being married to someone in the field. most nurses want to go home after a long day and forget about the hospital all together! no one i know became a nurse to meet dr. mcdreamy (GA FANS!) and retire.

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You should fire off an e-mail about those ads to The Center for Nursing Advocacy. Just google it. It's an organization that actively works to improve the view of nurses in the media.

No doubt about it, ads like those you describe are negative for the profession and contribute to the opinion that nursing isn't a "real" profession. After all, people w/ real careers don't get into them to meet Dr. Brown or wear comfy shoes.......

But that is the subconcious impression that people who don't know much about nursing get when they see ads like that. And that translates into less respect from our patients and society at large.

So many people have reacted with "Oh, your only going to nursing school!, Why not med school, it's BETTER!"

Grrrrr.....if there were positive images of nurses in the media (instead of the one nurse who gives everyone STD's on Grey's Anatomy) then I would'nt have to justify my career choice to otherwise intelligent people.

At least check out the web site, it's pretty cool w/ some great articles to read (like the one about Dr. Phil when he made a comment on his show about how "cute little nurses just go into nursing so they can find themselves a doctor to take them out of thier dismal job") No Joke!

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hey now......i do consider wearing comfy scrubs a perk of the job. i hated getting dressed up for my office job every morning. :lol2:

true... but it can backfire when a nurse needs to wear nice clothes. ;)

if it's not scrubs and tennies, forget it - it's not in my closet. :lol2:

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Specializes in NICU.
You should fire off an e-mail about those ads to The Center for Nursing Advocacy. Just google it. It's an organization that actively works to improve the view of nurses in the media.

No doubt about it, ads like those you describe are negative for the profession and contribute to the opinion that nursing isn't a "real" profession. After all, people w/ real careers don't get into them to meet Dr. Brown or wear comfy shoes.......

But that is the subconcious impression that people who don't know much about nursing get when they see ads like that. And that translates into less respect from our patients and society at large.

Honestly, I've seen the medical assistant program commercial in question and I don't see anything wrong with it. It starts with two young women, I think they're supposed to be sisters. One looks like she's visiting the other at her job, which is at a doctor's office. Conversation:

Sister 1: Mom says there's no money for me to go to college.

Sister 2: Why don't you try medical assistant school? I did, and in just ___ months I finished the program at ________ school. That's where I met Dr. _____. Now I've got a job that I love.

Sister 1: Mom's going to like the sound of this!

Honestly, I took it as two sisters talking about an alternative for people who don't have the money to go through years of college, but would like a job in the medical field.

Maybe the rest of America saw it as the medical assistant bragging that she "hooked up" with a doctor, but that was not the commercial's intent. I asked around at work, and NO ONE even thought about that until I mentioned it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
I've seen this one and I never took it as the MA was hooking up with the doctor. The way I understood it was the MA met the doctor when she was in clinicals in her MA program and he was impressed with her and she was impressed with him, so she applied for a job in his practice and he hired her.

That's what I thought too!

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I worked with a nurse once who told me she'd become a nurse, back in the '70's, "so I could wear those cute white miniskirts!" :D

I never was sure just how serious she was when she said it.

Becoming a nurse to wear scrubs is like becoming a teacher to be off in the summer!

Amazing a school would put that in an ad.

Actually some people DO go into teaching to get the summers off.......:uhoh21:

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