Not a real nurse huh? - Page 3

Every field in nursing are special...and that includes school nursing!!!Those who do not appreciate this specialty are somewhat narrow-minded people...Just be happy with what you are doing and don't think too much about what others are saying...

Here is a test to see if you are a real nurse:

1. Did you go to nursing school?
2. Did you pass the NCLEX?
3. Do you have a nursing license?
4. Does the job require 1, 2, & 3?

If you answer yes to all the above, you are a real nurse. Case closed!

Apparently, the only "real" nurses are med surg, ER, and ICU. I work LTC and I've heard this before. All nursing roles are valid. If you're an RN or an LPN, you are a real nurse, and you should be proud of it. No matter what, some people will hold stupid opinions. Don't worry about it.

OP just know that if you were a "real hospital nurse" you would still get comments like these.

Don't you know that Med-surg nurses are glorified waitresses and only ICU RN's are REAL nurses? Or that ICU RNs are anal bullies that can't assess without a million dollars worth of equipment and three aides attached to the patient? Why they wouldn't last half a shift on a floor with 6 patients to take care of and they could never do the work of an ER nurse, now those are the real nurses. But wait: those wacky ER RN's just spend their shifts being mean and denying people pain medication, if they ever found themselves on a floor or up in the ICU they would end up huddled in a corner crying.....you get the idea.

Insecure people will always find a way to make themselves feel better at the expense of others, don't give them another thought. I personally envy you for finding your niche so early in your career! I am still looking for mine.

Just wanted to say that as a hospital nurse in the past and now an informatics nurse that I am super grateful for my children's school nurse. Between asthma, epilepsy and all the major and minor booboos she has been amazing to and for my children!! So thank you to ALL school nurses that are there when we cannot be!!!!

Even though I want to go into hospital nursing, I will come out and say I envy those of you in non-hospital settings,
with your relatively normal hours, different style of care, and working with different populations.

Maybe once I get tired of the hospital gig, I'll seek other opportunities.

This!^^^^!!!!!Could not have said it better myself!!!

A nurse is a nurse is a nurse! We all trained and passed the NCLEX, so whichever field of nursing we chose, we are all nurses!

Yep, I know how this goes. I have never wanted to go into acute care, and that was reinforced by clinicals in nursing school. I work in LTC and love it, but my heart belongs to Hospice. I'm working on getting there.
Any time I tell people this, they ask me, "Don't you want to work in a hospital?" It seems they think I'm "settling" for a career in LTC and Hospice, because I couldn't cut it doing "real nursing" in a hospital. They can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that nurses do different things in different places, but are all essentially nurses.
You have to walk the walk to understand. Most people don't know diddly about nursing.

It's not hard to see why the public has no idea what nurses do when our own profession doesn't understand or respect different types of nursing. I think we are all biased to our own personal strengths or department but we need to be careful to not let that affect how we view other nurses and departments. Most people would be blown away by what nurses do (and I'm sure we as nurses would all be humbled if we switched departments or environments). I've always thought that it would benefit a hospital (for example) to have their staff spend a few shifts in each department so that we can at least get a small glimpse into what each other does to all help patient care. We all need each other whether inpatient, outpatient, community health, etc.

Congratulations to you and to anyone else that has found their niche within your career. Majority of people cannot say that. I'm grateful for my job and am constantly in awe of what I get to do while people go about their everyday lives. I have had multiple family members say they had no idea what nurses did until they needed us. Sad that that's how they had to find out, but I understand and am grateful that there is one more group of people out there that can educate others and emphasize how much we actually do.