Nursing; A job or a Profession?

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Hi RUsincere2. As usual, I will write my two cents and more. I entered nursing as a calling fully aware there was no money and not alot of thanks in it. Also, at the time I went into nursing, women were still pursuing mostly traditional lines of work and nursing was considered honorable and respectable. Things changed considerably in the last 10 or so years with the infiltration of managed care (costs), the transition from nonprofit to for profit health and medical care, advanced technology, and government regulations. Health care and medicine are just short of being managed like the manufacturing sector. This disappoints me to see that we willingly treat flesh and blood like cattle in the name of the almightly dollar. I will acknowledge that I still enjoy certain aspects of my job, but I no longer carry the same fire for it I did years ago. I'm glad to see that some of the younger nurses are engaged in nurse activism while making every attempt to maintain quality in their care of patients. Nurses don't need to continue to sit idly by and get steamrolled. The good thing about nursing, is that the skills and/or knowledge is transferable. If you don't like one setting, you can try another. Or go for another career. Thanks for asking this question.

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Originally posted by RUsincere2:

Please give a reason for your answer. Thanks.

Nursing is listed with the BLS as a blue collar. "JOB"

Based on the responsibility and accountability on the JOB one would have to recognized this JOB as a profession.

Question then is why has the public not recognized Nursing as a profession?

The answer to that is the profession is dominated by women, who for the most part are labor illiterate, and are too busy looking for emotional acceptance rather then and expectable work environment.

The Nursing organizations have a fixed delusion that the degree you have will earn you the right of passage into the male dominated world of professions.

Nursing is a divided field and the small pay gains made over the years are directly related to the cyclical shortages and not the degree you earned.

The 30 years struggle over Bachelor Degree as the entry-level degree into the profession has prevented Nursing form gaining the rewards that this profession with all its accountability and responsibility should have gained.

Nursing is a Hybrid JOB and it will always be that.

The responsibility that Nurses have to their JOB is to protect the environment they work in. Nurses must continue to fight for higher wages, lower ratios, greater say in the environment they work in, and improved benefits.

Nurses must become politically active in their Unions or Organizations that have formed P.A.C

Nurses have the power to improve their "profession" but we must all move in step with one another to achieve that.

Job/profession does it really matter? Its nothing more than a label, the way you carry yourself throughout the course of the day is the true indicator.

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Originally posted by Mijourney:

Hi RUsincere2. As usual, I will write my two cents and more. I entered nursing as a calling fully aware there was no money and not alot of thanks in it. Also, at the time I went into nursing, women were still pursuing mostly traditional lines of work and nursing was considered honorable and respectable. Things changed considerably in the last 10 or so years with the infiltration of managed care (costs), the transition from nonprofit to for profit health and medical care, advanced technology, and government regulations. Health care and medicine are just short of being managed like the manufacturing sector. This disappoints me to see that we willingly treat flesh and blood like cattle in the name of the almightly dollar. I will acknowledge that I still enjoy certain aspects of my job, but I no longer carry the same fire for it I did years ago. I'm glad to see that some of the younger nurses are engaged in nurse activism while making every attempt to maintain quality in their care of patients. Nurses don't need to continue to sit idly by and get steamrolled. The good thing about nursing, is that the skills and/or knowledge is transferable. If you don't like one setting, you can try another. Or go for another career. Thanks for asking this question.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Originally posted by Mijourney:

Hi RUsincere2. As usual, I will write my two cents and more. I entered nursing as a calling fully aware there was no money and not alot of thanks in it. Also, at the time I went into nursing, women were still pursuing mostly traditional lines of work and nursing was considered honorable and respectable. Things changed considerably in the last 10 or so years with the infiltration of managed care (costs), the transition from nonprofit to for profit health and medical care, advanced technology, and government regulations. Health care and medicine are just short of being managed like the manufacturing sector. This disappoints me to see that we willingly treat flesh and blood like cattle in the name of the almightly dollar. I will acknowledge that I still enjoy certain aspects of my job, but I no longer carry the same fire for it I did years ago. I'm glad to see that some of the younger nurses are engaged in nurse activism while making every attempt to maintain quality in their care of patients. Nurses don't need to continue to sit idly by and get steamrolled. The good thing about nursing, is that the skills and/or knowledge is transferable. If you don't like one setting, you can try another. Or go for another career. Thanks for asking this question.

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I still remember when this question was asked to my first year nursing class.

A profession has a specific body of knowledge which is applied in a competent manner and provides a service to the public. A profession is self monitoring and members of the profession are accountable for their actions.

Nursing meets all these criteria. We have a specific body of nursing knowledge, we have to practice competently, we provide a service to the public and have to face a nursing board and be accountable for our actions if we don't, so we ARE a profession.

Not to mention the YEARS of university (4 is the minimum in a few provinces here in Canada), the very specialized training and the awesome responsibilities.....

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ps

The label "profession" does matter, it means respect. If people respected nurses' knowledge like doctors' and lawyers' we would get taken a lot more seriously.

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Specializes in medical/telemetry/IR.

I'd have to say profession.

I made 46$/hour to sit with a suicide the other night. How many jobs out there pay 46$/hr????

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Nursing I believe is a craft,not a profession. There are professionals who work in the field of nursing. These individuals have pursued advanced degrees in nursing or other health related studies. I think they should raise the standards. Nurses should be considered professionals. The Bachelors degree should be the minimum. That I beleive would make nursing a profession in my eyes and in the academians eyes. Nurses deserve that respect and allready demand it. However this is just education talk. When I was a cna I worked under all LPNs. I thought that these women were the top of the top. I respected them because they were nurses. I looked up to them because they could pass pills and give shots. I admired them in several ways and many were willing to get their hands dirty. I new that knew something that I did not know,and that was ok.

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Nursing assistant

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Profession? Yes. Respected? No. Why? Because we don't put our foot down. I have seen nurses taken as far as physical harm and do nothing to help themselves, and no one stood up for them. Why? Fear. Fear of being fired. So what, sue them. We have all seen nurses (and been on the receving end) of verbal abuse. What happens? We walk away hurt and angry, but we stuff it. This is not the way to handle these things.

I do not take it and I never will. This may mean I will not be working as a nurse much longer, and that speaks volumes.

Nursing is a profession, waiting to be taken serious.

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I agree with everything everyone has added. I think because we are predominantly a female profession, we do not get the recognition we deserve. Another reason I believe to be the culprit is the fact that the there are many different ways to obtain an RN degree and those who recieve BSN's for example, have the same jobs and benefits as those who have associate degrees. There is no differentiation between achievements and that makes certain individuals frustrated. Some argue that anything less than a BSN should not be considered a part of the definition of profession. Whatever the reason may be, we need more recognition and Do need to be taken more seriously

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This is a heavy political question and remains open to debate Historically, professions (in the official sense of the word) require one single mode into entry (as opposed to 4), more of a historical and theoretical base and a more concrete definition of what it is that members actually do (rather then the subtle -- you have to be one to get it -- identity that nursing has). True professionals also tend to get more respect and get paid more.

That being said, I like to be thought of, and therefore try to behave as a professional. I really got my nose out of joint when my sister (she's an accountant, what does she know?) referred to nursing as a trade (sic) and told me that I shouldn't give relatives counselling about medications because all I knew what to do was change adult diapers and all I knew about was Alzheimers disease.

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