Certified Nurses Day excluding people

Nurses Relations

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Today I was in charge of handing out ribbons and trinkets to all of our certified nurses on the unit for Certified Nurses Day.

It felt awkward to "skip over" RN's who were not specialty certified so I tried to do it as discreetly as possible.

An I overreacting thinking that how our hospital handles Certified Nurses Day is exclusionary and in poor taste? Even if well meaning?

What do other hospitals do for Certified Nurses Day?

No one EVER sends me a Mother's Day card......waaaahhhh I'm offended!!!

Have we turned into such socialists that anyone who stands above the crowd must be mowed down to size????

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Thank you all for the very thoughtful comments for me to put things into perspective. I needed to look at it differently I guess.

However, a few comments were a little over the top so let me clarify that no one was having an emotional meltdown over it by any means.

In fact I got no reaction whatsoever by the non certified nurses. My thread was more about how I was feeling after my shift last night, not how they reacted. Every nurse deals with far bigger issues on their units than the topic of this thread, it was just an uneasy feeling I had after work last night.

To further clarify, my unit is almost all certified, more than 90%. Only a few of us are not certified so that contributed to my feeling that they were singled out and excluded.

Of those not certified, only one that I know of has never attempted it. The others have attempted it and been unsuccessful, some multiple times so it's not as if they are not trying to get there.

As far as Nurses Week goes, I totally agree. My hospital does the same thing. It's not about the nurses at all when ancillary, housekeeping, etc. are all lined up for the same free meals, cake, prizes, etc. that were supposed to be in celebration of Nurses Week.

Thanks again for helping me put things into perspective.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

We all know whom is certified and who isn't. It is their choice not to be. We got a card to our coffee place.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

I never heard of Certified Nurses' Day. Since I hold two certifications I think I'll have a party for myself since my employer didn't do anything.:singing:

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

There was a big sign with all of the names of nurses in our entire hospital who had certifications on CND. To be honest I was surprised at how few people had certifications; it seemed like mostly the charge nurses in my department. And it also lit a little spark in me, to think how cool it would be to have MY name on that list. So I would continue to celebrate it openly, because it encourages further education! :)

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Specializes in Med/Surg., Geriatrics, Pediatrics..

You don't have to be so sensitive about giving out ribbons only to certified nurses, it's not like nurses like each other anyway. I say separate nurses as far and as wide as one can, so they don't continue to hurt each other. You never see any other group of people who are suppose to be so caring carry so much hate for one another. Who started this anyway?

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

OP - do not apologize for caring about the other nurses too. I thought it was great that you did. Some people here can on occasion just be soooooo one way. No middle ground for them! Ever! You are just like me and think and act like me or you are WRONG!

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Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

The fact that most people on your unit are certified and that most of those who are not have tried and failed to become certified offers no meaningful justification to your prior position. The position is essentially: we cannot recognize greatness for fear of offending others. That is a perverted twisting of the motivation for Certified Nurses Day. The purpose is to recognize greatness and inspire others.

Any offense is misplaced emotion and comes from insecurity or twisted compassion. Such a mindset leads to actions that do not encourage greatness. How sad that we have encouraged such a mindset in our culture. It will be our downfall. But hey, we can have cake and cookies and everyone will be included! ;)

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Whoa. It's a bit eye-opening to see some of the harsh comments on here. I am someone who also considers the feelings of others and see no reason why the OP should be pounced on for expressing her thoughts on this forum. I personally feel that there should be a Nurses Day and that's it. All nurses work hard and demonstrate "greatness". While it is a great achievement to become certified, it does not make you a great nurse, sorry. After reading all the defensive comments on this thread, I have to conclude that Certified Nurses Day must have been thought up by a certified nurse who needed some public recognition of her achievement. It's a bit childish to me, but I don't really have a problem with it as long as there is also a day that celebrates ALL nurses. Gee, I hope no one minds that I dared to express my opinion!

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

My hospital doesn't recognize Certified Nurses Day.

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The fact that most people on your unit are certified and that most of those who are not have tried and failed to become certified offers no meaningful justification to your prior position. The position is essentially: we cannot recognize greatness for fear of offending others. That is a perverted twisting of the motivation for Certified Nurses Day. The purpose is to recognize greatness and inspire others.

Any offense is misplaced emotion and comes from insecurity or twisted compassion. Such a mindset leads to actions that do not encourage greatness. How sad that we have encouraged such a mindset in our culture. It will be our downfall. But hey, we can have cake and cookies and everyone will be included! ;)

I thought that if I clarified that no one was having an emotional meltdown over it that it might tame some of the heated comments. That was not intended to be a slight to your comment as I wanted honest feedback. I just didn't think that the subject matter would be likely to bring about such responses.

I wasn't trying to take a position at all let alone justify it. I was merely describing how I felt after work that night.

No different than going out for dinner/drinks after work with colleagues and asking "Hey do you think I overreacted today at work when........."

Since the staff at my job is almost all certified I was looking here for input and perspective particularly from non certified RN's although all comments were welcome and wanted.

Like many of you, I'm living in a world where moving toward more BSN (and certified) staff is all the rage and I see administration "encouraging" the ADN's to go back to school by citing Aiken's research about bad mortality rates and ADN RN's.

It reminds me of people who have an overweight child or spouse who thinks that telling them how fat they are is their way of "encouraging" them to lose weight.

Perhaps feeling overly sensitive that day, I might have interpreted our practices of Certified Nurses Day as more "encouragement" from administration.

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
It reminds me of people who have an overweight child or spouse who thinks that telling them how fat they are is their way of "encouraging" them to lose weight.

Nah, it's like going to Weight Watchers and seeing all of the people who used to weigh what you were and have now lost the weight and thinking "I can do that too!"

A lot of people have tried the NCLEX and failed but does that mean Nurses' Day singles them out as the nurses who've tried to pass certification but haven't are supposedly singled out?

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