People sure do have some nasty opinions about nursing

Nursing Students General Students

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And they don't know how to keep those opinions to themselves!

Nursing school has meant my social life has taken a pretty big hit, and on top of that I've had to drop some people who have shared their uninformed opinion about my given field.

"If nurse were smart they'd be doctors, as it is they're a bunch of bitter old harpies who exist just to make doctor's lives difficult."

(I wanted to tell this person if they were smart they'd be a filmmaker and not an unemployed assistant cameraman but I was too kind to disparage their chosen field)

"Nurses are pretty much glorified flight attendants. This is a customer service job - if they're tired they should just quit."

(Next time you're in the hospital tell the nurses that and tell me how it goes)

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put on a band aid."

(well, then put on your own band aid, genius)

I have my own grievances with the field and will complain about it, but when someone who's outside the healthcare setting says stuff like the above I get angry (and maybe a little bit defensive) - this job is not easy! I guess this is what they mean as nursing being a lifestyle and not just a job - I can't really relate very much to certain people any more.

After hearing some of the dumb things that have come out of people's mouth, I'm thinking nurses really need better PR: people really do not understand what nurses do at all! Have you all been subjected to the same sorts of ill-advised opinions?

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Specializes in psych/dementia.

No one has every said anything like that to me, but I've heard the line about not being smart enough to be a doctor. Nursing IS becoming more customer service driven because of reimbursements, and i really think that is a shame. Our job shouldn't be to make the patient happy all the time but to help them get better. That's a whole other can of worms.

I really think nursing has some pretty good PR. It's been the most trusted profession in the US for almost 15 years, save for 2001 after 9/11 when it was firefighters.

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I agree about the customer service thing (and I had this argument with the person who said it) and I agree that it's a shame that that's the direction things have taken. I don't think nurses want their patients to be unhappy but sometimes you have to do things that are necessary but won't make the patient happy - like tell them they can't go outside and smoke. There is no baseline level of niceness that will make everyone happy, that's for certain. This article is great and really sums it up well: https://allnurses.com/nurse-colleague-patient/patient-care-customer-775653.html

Most people have been awesome and supportive but every now and then I get one or two who have a few drinks and and everything comes out!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I have been a nurse for 35 years and I have NEVER had anyone make that comment to me. EVER!

I have had a few references over the years about dirty knees and the old term for management.......but I have gotten far more references to dumb blondes over the years than anything else.

I do believe that there has been a change with "customer service" that gives patients/families a sense of entitlement that the delivery of good patient care can become difficult.

I would tell those people that make the comments about flight attendants and nurses that they will have a different point of view when the plane is crashing and need to be evacuated or they are having an acute MI at 2am and need to be resuscitated or they have surgery and are bleeding to death and need blood until the MD arrives .

Let them know it's just food for thought.

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I thought nurses made the doctors lives easier ;).

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I guess this is what they mean as nursing being a lifestyle and not just a job - I can't really relate very much to certain people any more.

I was just thinking this very same thought the other day. Friends that I could talk to about anything two years ago are suddenly speaking another language....or is it me.

I've gotten some negative comments but its "crabs in a barrel" more than directed to the nursing field itself. Maybe the comments are made out of jealousy more than actual disrespect of nurses.

Sorry to hear that you have to put up with these comments. I think most people are misinformed when they watch Greys Anatomy, scrubs, House, etc.

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Or they can be just jealous!! That we have/or will end up (for those who are still in school ) with great jobs and good money!! maybe possible..idk

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I thought nurses made the doctors lives easier ;).

SERIOUSLY! I'd like to send these people to a nurse-less hospital and see how they liked that?

Thanks for the kind replies. I think the flight attendant comment was the most hurtful (that was from someone who I considered to be a close friend, well...past tense now) because there's a sort of classism to it that I cannot condone. She was implying that working in a service based industry is inferior - these people are just there to serve her needs and don't have any needs of their own, that their jobs are not prestigious, and if they're frustrated they don't deserve remediation - they should just quit and get over it. Most of the flight attendants I know are college graduates and very smart, capable people, and most of the nurses I know are more educated than their peers and continue their education for the course of their lifetime - but I guess working on your feet somehow implies we are not professionals. I'm still angry thinking about it.

Jennybrie, totally agree with you about the "another language" thing - when I meet friends and they're complaining about their incompetent assistant messing up their Starbucks order, then ask me how my day was and the first thought in my head is, "Well, I worked with a NICU infant that will likely die before the day is over," sometimes I don't even know what to say. This field definitely will give you perspective!

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Yesterday I was doing some work in my nursing building computer lab. This guy asked me what semester I was in I said third. I asked him what about you? He said I'm getting a license to teach nursing. We go on to talk about how tough nursing school is I said sometimes I feel like I could just go be a doctor because I mean we have to know a lot of stuff but I would much rather be a nurse I assure you. I feel like you really love the person sitting in that room as your patient. Anyway, he goes on to tell me that he has friends that went to nursing school and then med school and said nursing school was wayyyyyy harder!!!! So yea the truth is like my teachers said. We are a team. We need PCTS and doctors. Doctors need us. So peoplel sayin that junk obviously have no clue what they are talking about. I would love to see a doctor do the nursing work plus his work all in one day. I don't think he would even be able to go home in 12 hours!!!!

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wow! i've never come across comments like that but it does seem that many people have negative opinions about the profession...for what reason I do not know. I am a pre-nursing student at the moment but I LOVE the profession. My friend is doing pre-med, i use to be pre-med but decided i wanted to do nursing instead and plan to do a NP. My friends all think it's "stupid" that i am choosing to go into nursing, especially as a NP (nurse practitioner) when the years of study will be almost the same (if not the same) as a doctor. They just don't get it! In my opinion nurses are way more involved with their patients than doctors usually are so that is my main reasoning, unless I am wrong.

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I never heard anything like this!

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Yep... Our unit's nurses got called glorified waitresses by another nurse. It even happens within the profession.

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