Ridiculous quote about nurses featured in a sociology book..

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hello everyone,

I am already out of school for quite a bit now, but my best friend has recently returned to a community college and is taking her prereqs to become a teacher. She was studying for her upcoming sociology 101 test, and she pointed out a paragraph that mentions nurses that I found extremely offensive. It says:

"Women are still concentrated in low-pay, low-prestige jobs with few benefits and opportunities for advancement, such as secretaries, food service workers, daycare providers, entry-level retail sales, nurses, and maids/housekeepers."

Am I crazy, or is this offensive to anyone else? I mean absolutely no disrespect to those in the other fields that were mentioned, but I don't see how nursing fits into that category. I don't consider myself particularly sensitive to things like this, and I have heard the generic "You're so smart, why didn't you just become a doctor?" line from people, but low-income and low-prestige?! Few benefits and opportunities for advancement?!

This really blew my mind!!

So am I being overly sensitive, or is that a little out of line?

Specializes in retired LTC.

Oops! double posted

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Just want to say that being a teamster doesn't guarantee anything. My husband has been a teamster machinist for ten years and I have been a nurse for seven and he makes a couple bucks less than me. His insurance is comparable and his pension was dismantled and changed to a 401k in the last contract. Oh, and none of these things compare to the fact that he is in his second layoff of the year. He was off 6 weeks the first time and then he left a temp to permanent job to return to his union job. The company brought him back on mandatory overtime for 6 weeks and immediately laid him off after the work was done. Nothing to dispute. It's all legal in the contract. Sorry to go off subject, but being in a union is not a cure all in any profession. A union is only as good as it's contract.

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

Who published this textbook & what is the title?

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Just want to say that being a teamster doesn't guarantee anything. My husband has been a teamster machinist for ten years and I have been a nurse for seven and he makes a couple bucks less than me. His insurance is comparable and his pension was dismantled and changed to a 401k in the last contract. Oh and none of these things compare to the fact that he is in his second layoff of the year. He was off 6 weeks the first time and then he left a temp to permanent job to return to his union job. The company brought him back on mandatory overtime for 6 weeks and immediately laid him off after the work was done. Nothing to dispute. It's all legal in the contract. Sorry to go off subject, but being in a union is not a cure all in any profession. A union is only as good as it's contract.[/quote']

Agreed. I would love for my state to have unionized nursing, my cousin is a nurse in California and they're unionized and she says its wonderful. But you're absolutely correct, the union doesn't guarantee a thing. My dad is a union member and he's seen people lose their jobs over tiny things. They can do what they want with you. No one is really ever that safe and the union isn't the safety blanket it used to be. I'm not arguing with anyone over anything, I'm just saying.

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Compare nurse to doctor salaries....nurse to management salaries.....nurse to garbage worker salaries! I graduated from nursing school almost 10 years ago. At the same time my then husband started a new job as a garbage truck driver for the city. He made 50 cents more an hour than me, plus his benefits were AWESOME! His medical insurance, for the entire family was covered, with no out of pocket expense to him!!!!!!!!!!! In the ensuing years, his wages have increased at a higher rate than mine, and the only change is that now he has to pay $80 a month, his contribution, for medical insurance for himself and our 2 children. WAAAAAAAH????? The main difference, that I can see, is the union, Teamsters. If nurses belonged to the Teamsters, we'd have substantial pensions, better medical insurance, better representation, better working conditions, and better pay. So nurses have the reputation, but who makes the $$$$$? Don't kid yourselves, firefighters, who don't even need a college education to become a firefighter, work less and make more and have better pensions. Dangerous job? You betcha, so is nursing. Or have you never worn a self-contained respirator & isolation getup? Or been physically or verbally assaulted by a patient? Or hurt your back/shoulder/wrist caring for patients?[/quote']

I agree with you. My cousin is union in CA and she says its great. I don't think it'll ever happen in my state though.

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Who published this textbook & what is the title?

"Introduction to Sociology: A Collaborative Approach, Third Edition"

Ashbury Publishing LLC, Boise, Idaho

http://www.ashburypublishing.com

Also: I apologize, my friend gave me the incorrect publication date. The edition she has is actually 2012. If you think the comment on nurses was bad, you should see how racially biased the chapter on race was. I'm a little disturbed that younger college kids just starting out might be influenced by this garbage.

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Ironic in a sociology book. Oh well I spent my 4 years of college harassing my sociology major friends about how useless their degree is so I feel better :p.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't find that statement all that scandalous. Nursing is shift work that comes with a huge amount of responsibility and pay that isn't necessarily commensurate with that responsibility.

In some ways I think things have improved a bit (more advancement opportunities and "prestige" in the community) but honestly, nurses are pretty disposable. The charge nurse on my floor is probably going to be fired next month because the floor's pt satisfaction scores are only sprint 70%. No one really cares why the scores are low...but someone has to get the ax.

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I believe that the quote, "Women are still concentrated in low-pay, low prestige jobs with few benefits and opportunities for advancement, such as secretaries, food service workers, daycare providers, entry-level retail sales, nurses, and maids/ housekeepers," is very untrue and not realistic. As a nurse, you have hundreds of opportunities whether it be a CNA to a surgeon and you also have the opportunity to make far more money than you would if you were in any of the other professions. In Connecticut, an RN can make anywhere from $65,000 to $75,000 a year. In my opinion, that is quite a large pay check! This quote should be altered in the textbook and it is shocking that the textbook was published only a short time ago.

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