Are We "Glorifying" Nurses?

Libby1987 · Jul 13, 2015

My SO recently responded and tagged me in one of those memes. It was really sweet of him, though he got the thankless part wrong, but the meme was just plain self inflating.

"The love of my life is a nurse. I see first hand the care, commitment and energy that nursing requires. Helping heal the body is a hard, challenging and often thankless job. But the energy, kindness and compassion to be strong for both patient, family, and friends is something that is truly amazing. Then, even after a long day of patient/family care. She still finds the strength to love and care about me. That takes a special kind of person. "

It's enough that my partner knows what I do and supports me, I don't need the ego stroking on Facebook.

nynursey_ · Jul 13, 2015

My SO recently responded and tagged me in one of those memes. It was really sweet of him, though he got the thankless part wrong, but the meme was just plain self inflating.
"The love of my life is a nurse. I see first hand the care, commitment and energy that nursing requires. Helping heal the body is a hard, challenging and often thankless job. But the energy, kindness and compassion to be strong for both patient, family, and friends is something that is truly amazing. Then, even after a long day of patient/family care. She still finds the strength to love and care about me. That takes a special kind of person. "
It's enough that my partner knows what I do and supports me, I don't need the ego stroking on Facebook.

That was really sweet.

My only addition to that would be that if even the public perception of nursing is that it's thankless, well ... there has to be at least a little truth in that. I have had a great deal of patients with no prior exposure to nursing express that they feel there is no gratitude awarded to nurses. Now, that isn't to say that I feel I deserve gratitude. As a matter of fact, I feel greatly uncomfortable when a patient thanks me for doing something that is rightly a matter of being my responsibility. But it does just go to show you that, as sometimes stereotypes are rooted in truth, so are perceptions of nurses. If the public sees it then it must be visible.

Libby1987 · Jul 13, 2015

Don't get me wrong, I know nursing is challenging at best. I just find the telling of it on things such as Facebook beneath us, if you will.

Can you imagine a PT or MD crying the virtues and sacrifice of their jobs? Wouldn't that just turn you off?

nynursey_ · Jul 13, 2015

Don't get me wrong, I know nursing is challenging at best. I just find the telling of it on things such as Facebook beneath us, if you will.
Can you imagine a PT or MD crying the virtues and sacrifice of their jobs? Wouldn't that just turn you off?

I see a LOT of people crying about their jobs ... both complaining and tooting their own horn. Hell, I have had to read about McDonalds employees deserving $15/hr for the last 3 months.

Physicians gripe just as much as nurses if not more. I can't tell you how many times I hear complaints about being on call, excessive pages, patient loads, ... etc. The difference is that physicians are glorified in our culture to the point of almost being idolized. Nurses, while often respected and trusted, do not necessarily get the acknowledgement for the knowledge and service they perform, particularly as evidenced by this article.

canigraduate · Jul 13, 2015

Don't get me wrong, I know nursing is challenging at best. I just find the telling of it on things such as Facebook beneath us, if you will.
Can you imagine a PT or MD crying the virtues and sacrifice of their jobs? Wouldn't that just turn you off?

Didn't you see that post going around of residents sleeping?

Libby1987 · Jul 13, 2015

Well I think those are ridiculous too!

And I think MD's have long since lost their glorification. I would say most don't know the realities of today's General practice MD's.

Purple_roses · Jul 13, 2015

I think the main take away is this: the author of the "article" sucks. Plain and simple.

Is nursing the hardest thing there was or ever will be? Of course not. Does that mean it's ok to belittle the profession? Of course not.

Nursing is not the hardest thing, but it can still be hard. And while nurses don't need to be thanked profusely at every waking moment, they also don't need to be belittled.

klone, MSN, RN · Jul 13, 2015

My SO recently responded and tagged me in one of those memes. It was really sweet of him, though he got the thankless part wrong, but the meme was just plain self inflating.
"The love of my life is a nurse. I see first hand the care, commitment and energy that nursing requires. Helping heal the body is a hard, challenging and often thankless job. But the energy, kindness and compassion to be strong for both patient, family, and friends is something that is truly amazing. Then, even after a long day of patient/family care. She still finds the strength to love and care about me. That takes a special kind of person. "
It's enough that my partner knows what I do and supports me, I don't need the ego stroking on Facebook.

That was totally my point in the post I made earlier. I'm tired of people who make nurses out to be martyrs. Sort of like that post from the boyfriend of the pre-nursing student, coming here to ask how he can best support her for the next few years, as she martyrs herself as a nursing student, and he thanked us all for being amazing people doing such a hard job. It's a freakin' job. I'm not a martyr. I get paid very well for the relatively little education required to do it (speaking of the first 5 years of my career, as an ADN - I'm sorry, but I do think making $60,000K a year with an associate's degree IS well-paid for a small amount of education).

I think there IS way too much martyring and self-congratulation in the nursing field. And no, I'm NOT burned out, I AM an awesome nurse, and I'm damn good at my job. But in many ways, I DO agree with her article.

(and as I said earlier, or maybe in a different thread - once in a while I do go home and cry about a patient, but I don't consider that a good or virtuous thing, I consider that a major personality flaw and it's not something I admit to anyone except maybe my husband).

nynursey_ · Jul 13, 2015

Well I think those are ridiculous too!
And I think MD's have long since lost their glorification. I would say most don't know the realities of today's General practice MD's.

Agreed. Both general practice or hospitalists. However, this article further supports that the belief is that physicians do a more important job than nurses. Which also isn't true. And I'm willing to bet the public has that same perception.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Jul 13, 2015

I don't agree with this at all. My youngest is in engineering in a Big Ten university, and it is extremely competitive. First of all, it is competitive admission to even get into the Engineering college. Second, her prereqs have been things like Calc 3 and Calc 4, Physics for scientists, Advanced Organic Chem for Scientists, etc. I am obviously biased, but I can tell you my daughter is a caliber student that I certainly wasn't. And the preparation she had to do in high school was well beyond what you would need to do if nursing school was your goal. Math for engineering BEGINS at Calculus.

On some points I don't disagree with you. I agree there needs to be a certain caliber of student. In high school I was a terrible student. The reason being, I was more worried about my social life than school. But, I think if I was a dedicated student I could have done whatever I wanted, especially if I was interested in the subject. All of those math classes just did not interest me a bit, so I never paid attention or bothered to learn it. Now that I'm older and know what I need to do to be competitive in my program, I took the time to learn and I'm actually not bad at math now. I surprised myself, especially in college algebra. But that is because I took the time to learn it.

But, I know many of people in other degrees in college, plus I see a lot of people with other degrees come in here and tell us how terrible their GPA is from their other degree. So yes, an engineering student can graduate with a 2.0 GPA and get their degree. And their grading scale is not like ours. A guy I used to date has an engineering degree. He partied it up his first time in college and missed classes all the time because he was hungover. I think he told me his GPA was a 2.3 when he graduated. He went back to school many years later and got his doctorate degree in law and had a stellar GPA when he graduated. Please do not think I am taking anything away from your daughter. She sounds like a smart cookie. To be able to be a great student at a young age is incredible and I commend her. She will be so much further ahead than most kids her age and will be able to start her career sooner and make some money. I was not that kind of student. And what interests me now is the medical field, so I would never even attempt those classes she is doing. Be proud of what she is accomplishing because it is incredible. I'm trying to instill good habits for studying and doing schoolwork now in my 9 year old son because I do not want him to repeat my mistakes. Purdue is a huge engineering college out here and it is also Big Ten. That is where my ex-boyfriend went for his degree.

The person who wrote that article said that anyone could be a nurse. She inferred that not everyone could be an engineer or a scientist. She was putting nurses down and saying they are not intelligent. I do not believe that whatsoever. I worked my butt off to get into the program. I needed that 4.0 to be competitive at my school. To put down the intelligence of nurses, is wrong. To put down the intelligence of anyone when she doesn't know them is wrong also. I think we all develop our interest early in life and we gravitate towards what we are interested in. I took Advanced Physics in high school. It was all right and kept my attention enough to pass it, but it wasn't what I truly was about. There are people who at a young age love dinosaurs. So they are going to gravitate towards things that would maybe help them to be a paleontologist. If they took a class on Shakespeare they probably would not do as well or be as dedicating to learning it as they would a class on the history of dinosaurs.

I hope my point comes across better there. I, in no way, wanted to take away from your daughter's accomplishments. I'm sure you are extremely proud of her and you have every right to be!!

nynursey_ · Jul 13, 2015

That was totally my point in the post I made earlier. I'm tired of people who make nurses out to be martyrs. Sort of like that post from the boyfriend of the pre-nursing student, coming here to ask how he can best support her for the next few years, as she martyrs herself as a nursing student, and he thanked us all for being amazing people doing such a hard job. It's a freakin' job. I'm not a martyr. I get paid very well for the relatively little education required to do it (speaking of the first 5 years of my career, as an ADN - I'm sorry, but I do think making $60,000K a year with an associate's degree IS well-paid for a small amount of education).
I think there IS way too much martyring and self-congratulation in the nursing field. And no, I'm NOT burned out, I AM an awesome nurse, and I'm damn good at my job. But in many ways, I DO agree with her article.
(and as I said earlier, or maybe in a different thread - once in a while I do go home and cry about a patient, but I don't consider that a good or virtuous thing, I consider that a major personality flaw and it's not something I admit to anyone except maybe my husband).

Your post suggests then that you're paid well for the area you live in. I do not make $60,000K a year. This is my 2nd year in and I make $1 more than my first year. I do not feel I'm well compensated for the work I do nor the knowledge I have. I also do not believe my raises are provided by fair criteria. And again, what you percieve as a "small amount" of education may not be the case for others that have completed their degrees. Ever heard of the phrase "5 minutes in hell feels like an eternity"? Nursing school sucked. Plain and simple. Kudos to those that found it easy. I hated it and if I ever had to repeat it, I don't know that I'd have the gumption to do so.

I don't think crying about patients is a character flaw. I used to, but I quit that a long time ago. It is extremely difficult to carry the weight of the emotions you handle on a day-to-day basis. It's extremely difficult to see death and dying. And I suppose it's situational to where you work and the type of population you work with but to say that crying over a patient is a character flaw is a little crass.

~PedsRN~, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2015

Come on, now - some of those Memes are hilarious. I follow an instagram account that makes me laugh on the DAILY!!!!