A nurse is a nurse is a nurse. Is that true?

Nurses General Nursing

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I know you have heard this phrase. What are the characteristics common to all types of nursing that make a nurse is a nurse is a nurse?

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

I'm not sure I understand the question.

Do you mean the habit that all nurses develop of doing a quick visual assessment of every person who comes into contact with the nurse? Like when I'm standing in line at WalMart and I notice that someone has COPD or great veins, or HTN, or rosacea? Or that their skin color hints at anemia or cancer or a liver problem?

We're taught those assessment skills that it becomes unconscious and so lightning-fast that people think it's intuitive.

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

a nurse is a licensed professional that must maintain a standard of care. i am not sure what you mean by characteristics.. but nurses are RN'a and LPN's only. Nurses are not medical assistants or CNA's or pt techs or anyone else that thinks they can call themselves a nurse. because plain and simple .. they are not...

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Let me answer your question with a question. If I understand what you are asking basically may be referring to a warm body with a license. I have heard the phrase many times from management who doesn't have a clue anyway. Now for my question. If you took your mother to the ER for chest pain would you want a nurse who has 30 years ER experience taking care of her or would you be just as happy with a brand new nurse 3 days out of orientation or an LTC nurse?

I mean no offense to any body I am just trying to point that there are so many specialties that each has her own set of special skills.

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Sorry guys. let me clearify first. this is a topic of my BSN class.

My opinion, right after we get out of school, I think we are all about the same. We studied the same material to prepare for the board exam, and learn the basic techniques prepare us for practice. But after we work as nurses for sometime, we tend to be expert in what we practice everyday, but become unfamiliar with the stuff we don't see everyday. Just like if a physch nurse is getting pulled to an OB unit who have not done that since school, then a nurse is a nurse is a nuse would be false statement.

But there is something in common between all type nurses that make it possible for floating. I need opinions from you to help me answer the question.

Thanks for the reply.

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Specializes in Day Surgery, Agency, Cath Lab, LTC/Psych.

A nurse is a nurse is a nurse is a false statement. The current healthcare system in the U.S. is so completely complex and diverse that specialization is necessary for patient safety. Every area of nursing practice is a specialty. A med/surg nurse shouldn't be expected to practice independently in OB. A pediatric nurse shouldn't circulate in the OR. This is why nurses must watch out for themselves. We are occasionally asked to do assignments which we are not qualified for--this is not a bad thing but we have to speak up! No one else can defend your license for you. As an agency nurse I have been asked to do all sorts of assignments which I am not qualified for. Thankfully I know my limitations. Just this week I was asked to do an assignment in a specialty I have no experience in. They told me they needed me "for my license." Well, its my license to protect and I am not a nurse whose a nurse whose a nurse!

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Specializes in SICU.

No a nurse is not the same as any other nurse. Just the same as a doctor is not a doctor. You would not expect a doctor to agree to cover for another doctor in an area he/she was not trained. And if asked, they would look at you like you were crazy. Health care has become much more specialized and acute.

If I was having a baby I would want an L & D nurse, if I was having my appendix out I would want a Med-Surg nurse, if I was having a heart transplant I would want an ICU nurse.

Nurses should only be floated within their specialty. Nurses in the float pool have to know multiple specialties which is why in my few they should get paid for it.

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NO NO NO!!!

I work with cardiac and pulmonary patients. Put me in OB or Neuro and I am lost.....I don't have the skill set to be comfortable with those patients. I could learn it, with some orientation.....

I relate this to myself, but it goes across the board. As a traveler and agency nurse, I can do a lot of things and consider myself very flexible. But there are some places it's not safe for me to go.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

But there is something in common between all type nurses that make it possible for floating. I need opinions from you to help me answer the question.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, we nurses share common characteristics, but there's nothing that's common enough to make a "nurse is a nurse is a nurse" and nothing that makes an experienced nurse feel safe to float to an area that is out of her expertise.

I will float to a tele or med-surg floor in a heartbeat, but don't even think of putting me in the ER, OB, or ICU. Why?

My licensure requirements trump hospital need. My state BON requires that if I'm floated to any unit, I have to be as competent in that area as the nurse who specializes there. If I'm not, then I won't go.

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Specializes in ICU of all kinds, CVICU, Cath Lab, ER..

I agree with a majority of the previous replies. Let me share something with you that opened my eyes.

Shortly after moving to the state I now call home, I reported for work at a hospital (staff RN in Open Heart - 3 yr contract). This is a very large conglomerate (with a quasi-religious undertone). A not-for-profit (ha ha ha) group.

During the course of the 3 years there, I was floated a number of times - when things went slow - and they tried floating me to units where there was a "need" but where I had no experience; they really gave me a hard time when I refused to go places where I had no experience.

Through it all, I remembered the statement made by the hospital chaplain to me when I called him at 11:30 p.m. to come for a sudden turn of a patient in Open Heart (the family asked for him). He said: "I don't know why 'you people' can't get it in your head - DO NOT CALL ME AFTER 10:00 P.M.!!!'

When I asked him what he meant by "you people" he said: "nurses! of course". He then explained why he felt that we were not on the same plane as him and his fellow bigots. I was just disgusted!

I wouldn't work for that group for any amount of money.

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Specializes in OB/GYN, Med/Surg, Family Practice.

While I agree with most everyone's replies to your request, I think some people are missing a key aspect of your question. Yes, it's true that "a nurse is a nurse is a nurse" is FALSE in that we cannot and should not float to areas in which we have no experience. That's clearly unsafe. So, a nurse is NOT a nurse is NOT a nurse...

BUT, where I've heard that phrase was in reference to nurses who took different avenues to achieve their schooling and then passed the NCLEX. In this case, YES...a nurse is a nurse is a nurse AT FIRST. We all start off somewhere...we're all novices at one point. And once we pass the boards, it matters none that I have a BSN and my colleague has an ADN...we function in the same role.

Where it comes into play is (like others have mentioned) when you're asked to do something outside of your current (or passed learned) skill set. Also, there is a difference in the event that a BSN prepared nurse can take on more diverse management roles than, say, an ADN or certificate nurse.

Another point I'd like to make... While it's true that RNs and LPNs are both "nurses", I think it's inaccurate to lump them into the "a nurse is a nurse is a nurse" category because we know that an LPNs skill set, while varied, competent, and complex, is still not as diverse as a registered nurse's. Please, no one jump down my throat for that...I respect and cherish the LPNs I've worked with just as much as my fellow RNs...I'm just stating the truths, legally.

I hope this helped. Good luck to you, in school and thereafter!

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
i'm not sure i understand the question.

do you mean the habit that all nurses develop of doing a quick visual assessment of every person who comes into contact with the nurse? like when i'm standing in line at walmart and i notice that someone has copd or great veins, or htn, or rosacea? or that their skin color hints at anemia or cancer or a liver problem?

we're taught those assessment skills that it becomes unconscious and so lightning-fast that people think it's intuitive.

:yeah::yeah::yeah:

makes dh nuts, but my ds is a lab tech, so now we both check out veins in the grocery store!!:lol2:

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