I am working on my doctorate, working full-time as a nurse educator, and during summers and breaks I return to the ICU, my first love :) I was working in the ICU last weekend when a coworker asked me if I missed working as a "real" nurse. I found this surprising, although I probably shouldn't. Over time, including on this board, I've heard over and over the same misconception that if you're not a bedside hospital nurse, you're not a "real" nurse.
There are a thousand permutations on the theme: LTC nurses aren't real nurses, people who work outside of "unit x" aren't real nurses, people who are LPNs aren't "real" nurses, ad nauseum. I am so tired of this. A favored theme seems to be "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." I feel that despite working my butt off to stay current in my practice and bring relevant education to students, these contributions must have no value in my peers' eyes.
To me, a nurse comes in so many forms; different but equal, all with an important role. Why does nursing only respect the value of ONE type of nursing? It's like Pinocchio, worried about being a "real" boy. I wish more time was spent recognizing our peers unique skills and less spent trying to tear each other down. That's all, just a vent and a wish things would change.
Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
respectfully, why do you feel the need to seek validation from your peers?
speaking for myself, i don't care in the least, who considers me a "real" nurse or not.
no one or nothing could ever minimize me, what/who i am, as i have a strong sense of self.
and so, it begs the question...why?
don't let anyone try and take that from you.
leslie
op: i agree with leslie! the day i leave bedside nursing, i will not cease to be a registered nurse (a real nurse) and i will not return if i have a choice!!! i have plans to move into administration someday and i have no plans to return to bedside nursing. while i work bedside, i am working hard to learn and grow as a nurse, but i have absolutely no desire to put in 20-40 years of this backbreaking work. any nurse that has a problem with that, so be it, take my job when i move on!
as for my peers in the future, he/she will agree with me because my peers will be nurse administrators and educators. i will not be hanging around with bedside nurses unless i am implementing an interview or survey while performing research. also, i will still be a real nurse because i will still be a licensed registered nurse.
the real problem with our profession is the fact that we do not have respect for each other’s life-styles, ambitions, or career goals, though supposedly we are open minded when it comes from patients. in any case, if you are bothered by the comments of bedside nurses, be sure to comment back. make him/her aware that you are always working as a real nurse because that is what you are no matter the occupation. good luck.
It's kinda like when a guy who's a nurse is a called a "Male Nurse"...?!?!?! OK, didn't know the definition of nurse mentioned anything about being a female only occupation.....smh...#IJS!!!!!
Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.
It's not other people who make me feel less than a "real" nurse. It is me. I was hired as a Field Nurse Supervisor for a HHA only 2 yrs into my nursing career, and I really hadn't gotten a lot of good, hands-on patient care experience yet. I am very cerebral, well-spoken, impeccable writing skills, great computer skills, etc. I was made for a job like this. BUT... I am reminded on a regular basis that I really don't have much in the way of clinical skills and it really weighs heavily on me. I DON'T feel like a real nurse, and I'm afraid I won't until I really get in the trenches and do the hard stuff - i.e., Med-Surg in a hospital. But the thought of doing that horrifies me. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm good at my job, but I lack clinical experience. I definitely do NOT feel like a real nurse.
I think the thing that makes nursing such a great field for so many people is that there are so many different opportunities in the industry. We all go into nursing for different reasons, and I have incredible respect for those in the trenches doing bedside. I think having nurses in all areas of the healthcare sector really makes nursing the profession that it is for all of us. If there weren't nurses working in corporate offices, who would be speaking up for those of us in the trenches? Someone who is not a nurse will never understand what it means to be a nurse. I appreciate all of you, and you are all wonderful, caring, REAL nurses!
I agree with you. I am a nurse educator as well and I was offered a job recently to manage a floor. I almost fell out of my chair when someone said to me "Well you haven't been in nursing for a while, do you think you could get back into it?"
I actually laughed. I just have to supervise my eight students in clinicals to make sure all of them are doing their job (all of which have 2-3 patients a piece.) I have to make sure that all 16-24 patients were taken care of, all meds were given, all treatments were done effectively, all physicians were called, etc. Teaching is not real nursing???? I think it is real nursing time 8. Just my opinion, however.
Don't worry A0x1, someday when they do something other than hospital nursing (like the other 45% of nurses) they will see what real nursing is all about.
Interesting. So, despite the fact that I still work actively in the ICU, the second I enter the doors of the school to teach, I cease to be a "real" nurse? I suppose that would make me roughly 25% real, since I teach full time and only work ICU w/e, holidays, and summer. I wonder who will teach students since nurse educators aren't real. It can't be a bedside nurse, since that bedside nurse will then also cease to be a real nurse. Sounds like quite the conundrum!
I have a close friend who just retired after 45 years as an RN. I'm sure she will be sad to learn that now that she's retired, she also has ceased to be "real" and her contributions to the field have now been invalidated.
I think at least for me the bitterness that comes with feeling/saying. Real nurse is when I think of my ADON who sits in her office all day while we run around like headless chickens trying to cope with h idea of adequate staffing because it's been ten plus years since she actually did any patient care and therefore has no recollection of what it entails. Nursing educators do hands on work...which makes them real. NPs too. It only applies, at least for me, to the people that yes, have a long string of initials but haven't laid hands on a patient in forever cuz they are " too important"...this also excludes retired nurses...we all know they are real!
If any of you work in a teaching hospital you may get my drift when I say this but do we call MD's who teach or are in administration (Medical director, CEO, etc,) fake doctors? Do we dare say to the docs that they are not real doctors? Don't think so.
Interesting. So, despite the fact that I still work actively in the ICU, the second I enter the doors of the school to teach, I cease to be a "real" nurse? I suppose that would make me roughly 25% real, since I teach full time and only work ICU w/e, holidays, and summer. I wonder who will teach students since nurse educators aren't real. It can't be a bedside nurse, since that bedside nurse will then also cease to be a real nurse. Sounds like quite the conundrum!
I have a close friend who just retired after 45 years as an RN. I'm sure she will be sad to learn that now that she's retired, she also has ceased to be "real" and her contributions to the field have now been invalidated.
I would have to clarify/correct my post, in that Nurse Educators would rank higher on scale of 'real nurses' if there was a scale. The lowest I think would be the 'corporate nurses', those who would just as soon die before touching a real patient again.
Yes, when I retire, I will cease to be a real nurse. I will no longer be involved in the field of nursing and I will no longer give care to those in need. My career as a real nurse will have ended.
If any of you work in a teaching hospital you may get my drift when I say this but do we call MD's who teach or are in administration (Medical director, CEO, etc,) fake doctors? Do we dare say to the docs that they are not real doctors? Don't think so.
Only very very quietly...under our breath...definitely only when they're going around a corner..
A real nurse? What’s that? You mean like wiping butt, dealing with ETOHers and demented confused people with an assignment of 5 other patients, trying to decode the docs orders, working permanently understaffed, taking 15 minutes to chart a procedure that took one minute to complete because those in charge think they scored a “great deal” on medical software, constantly dealing with broken equipment, trying to work with horrible work design flow that adds 15 steps to an action that should take 2 steps, bureaucratic red tape, cranky coworkers, all the while getting BS answers like “We understand this is an issue, and we are working on it. We’re discussing this issue in committee.” Is that a real nurse?
Sometimes you got to DC the esoteric rhetorical fluffy BS and get “real”….That may be what she meant… but why the hell you would miss that is beyond me. Rock on sister…
Specializes in med-surg, urgent care, emergency med.
OP well said. I agree 100 percent. I get a double whammy being a LPN and working in LTC. One of my patients that know I'm in RN school told me once I'm done I will be a REAL nurse. I had to really bite my tongue. I felt like telling her " What in the hell do you think I am now a pretend nurse?"
I'm an LVN as well. Even my parents say..why didn't you become a 'real' nurse? I ask, what do you mean..the reply was that a real nurse is an RN. I didn't know what to say. So i said, well, I'm a real person, able to practice nursing within the scope of practice as required by the state of california, just as RN's do, though theirs is a somewhat broader scope. An LVN is a nurse, just has a different set of rules to follow. It's irritating, but, whether you're an LVN or RN, we all know what it means to nurse and be a nurse. I'm proud of my title, and every nurse should be as well, no matter what anyone says in regards to a "real" nurse..we all follow the nurse practice act and we all follow the same rules & regulations in respect to our scope of practice.
I do think Nurse Educators are high on the food chain. I hope to be one myself some day.
I do think those that teach still need to have hands on care at least part time. In the trenches. With the same assignment as anyone else would have, not just float in and out of traumas, start hard IVs, etc. They need to feel the STRESS.
Time away from the bedside makes you disconnected from the realities of nursing. You can preach evidence based practice all you like, but unless you can see the very real barriers that stand in the way of nurses using that new best practice guideline, it does no good. Nurses will continue to smile and nod at your inservices and go on doing it the best and fastest way they know how.
Bedside nurses are crafty and tough. Pretty real. Not that other nurses aren't real, but bedside nurses are more real, I think.
SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN
3,376 Posts
op: i agree with leslie! the day i leave bedside nursing, i will not cease to be a registered nurse (a real nurse) and i will not return if i have a choice!!! i have plans to move into administration someday and i have no plans to return to bedside nursing. while i work bedside, i am working hard to learn and grow as a nurse, but i have absolutely no desire to put in 20-40 years of this backbreaking work. any nurse that has a problem with that, so be it, take my job when i move on!
as for my peers in the future, he/she will agree with me because my peers will be nurse administrators and educators. i will not be hanging around with bedside nurses unless i am implementing an interview or survey while performing research. also, i will still be a real nurse because i will still be a licensed registered nurse.
the real problem with our profession is the fact that we do not have respect for each other’s life-styles, ambitions, or career goals, though supposedly we are open minded when it comes from patients. in any case, if you are bothered by the comments of bedside nurses, be sure to comment back. make him/her aware that you are always working as a real nurse because that is what you are no matter the occupation. good luck.