big bad nursing myths busted

iggyEDRN · May 9, 2007

Ancillary staff doesn't really know anything about what is going on with the patient.

yeah, right... as a student and an intern at the hospital, I have learned SO MUCH from everyone on the staff, not just the RNs and MDs.

fins · May 9, 2007

"We need more "male" nurses (Why can't we just have more "nurses", period? )"

I'm sorry, but I can't consider this a myth. We do need more men in nursing. Think about it - if women are 93% of the nurses, and men are 7% of the nurses, and we are going to need a boatload more nurses in the future, where is the real growth opportunity?

The market is already saturated with women nurses - by that, I mean that an effort to recruit a larger number of women into nursing is likely to provide marginal results. You're at the trailing end of the bell curve, numbers-wise.

On the other hand, there is enormous opportunity to grow the number of male nurses, once the stigma of being a male nurse declines. I think that's why the growth of nursing as a second career is going to be so integral to the growth of nursing as a profession that men will consider.

When I was in high school, there is absolutely no way that I would have considered becoming a nurse. On the other hand, when I was looking to change careers as an adult, nursing seemed like a good idea, and I was old enough not to care what anybody else thought.

edc1951 · May 9, 2007

If you don't have an advanced degree or you have more than a few years experience and are not in a leadership position, you must not be a good nurse. ( I find this myth to be believed mostly by nurses, BTW. Patients tend not to care, they just want a nurse who is respectful, caring and able to perform the actions she wrote on that fancy care plan-about which they also could care less.)

edc1951 · May 9, 2007

Oh yeah, the best one was one I heard at a meeting of doctors in Cambridge, MA in the late-80's. They were discussing the need for medical technicians-the reason? To hlep lower health care costs for the patients since nurses are getting "uppity" and "demanding" more pay. I wish I could say I had had the nerve to flatten the tires of his brand new Maserati!

edc1951 · May 10, 2007

And since this is supposed to be about busting the myths- some years (30) back (and I have no reason to believe it is not still true) there were studies done that showed that after on year on the florr BSN, ADN and diploma nurses were equally skilled.

It has been the privatization of healthcare and the use of the "business model" (care plans, coding, etc.) that has led to many of the changes. Diploma programs were phased out because they began to cost too much for hospitals but in 30 years (and experience in several areas in 5 states and 3 foreign countries) I have yet to meet a nurse whose skills revealed ANYTHING other than the years of experience s/he had rather than the degree. Bad nurses, and they do exist, are so because they don't so the work not because they sat through less hours of theory.

RN Randy · May 11, 2007

1. All people in leadership positions are there because they couldn't hack it at the bedside.

Never heard that one.... I thought it was because it was simply their "turn" and that in itself made them instant management material.....

[Kind of like Docs who think MD equals instant business manager?]

I get a real kick out of both... :-)

rb

EmerNurse, BSN, RN · May 11, 2007

Sadly, Thats not to far from the truth either. The ED at my hospital does not srive for customer service:uhoh3:

I have to argue that one, please. We're not mean, we are tough (because we have to be) and we're not jaded (much). As for Press Ganey - it's not our fault that Joe is back for the 6th time this week and is mad because the doc won't give him dilaudid and now he's mad and screaming at everyone. Joe isn't about to give us a good customer service rating - and you can bet he'll be the first one getting a survey.

The ER staff in my hospital goes out of their way to give the best care we possibly can - and the best care just might not equal what the patient thinks it does. ER has it's own challenges (as do other specialities) but it's not fair to stereotype the ER nurses based on what we deal with every day. We do an amazing amount of good work, as a rule. Sadly, when the final survey's roll around, though, it's not the ER the admitted people remember - it's the floor or the ICU where they (also) got great care. ER is just the interim trip through the gates to the "real" care, for many people.

Ok nuff whining from me.

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · May 11, 2007

Hi fins,

I was commenting on the attitude of separating nurses by gender.

I could care less what the gender of the nurse was/is - so long as s/he is competent. I'm not a "male nurse". I'm a "nurse". My professional license does not state "Registered Male Nurse".

Don't get me wrong - I DO think that it's nice that more men are re-joining the profession.... I just want the focus to be the recruitment of competent nurses - not just competent "male nurses" to equalize some work force scale or whatever.

cheers,

Roy

mamason · May 11, 2007

All nurses do is sit on their butts all day long.
LOL!!!! This one really cracks me up!. Is this why my feet and legs hurt so much after working 12 hour day shifts? I'm lucky to pee once during my shift!!!

Funny. After I posted this, I went to work my following shift and a doc had the audacity to say, " You guys sure do sit at the desk alot." I politely said, " Is that why my feet hurt so much at the end of my shift?" I just so happended to have some time to chart on one of my pts. Not to mention, I'm usually late getting out of work because I didn't have time to finish the charting that should have been done during my shift. Can't do that when your pt is constantly on the call light, or they require multiple IV's because they are confused and keep pulling them out, or because my little lady in room such and such keeps going into SVT and won't stop, or because I'm checking groin sites for hematomas, or because I trying to straighten out the screwed up orders that some of these docs write, or because pt so and so's blood pressure refuses to go down, or pt so and so is complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, or pt so and so keeps trying to take her clothes off and come out in the hall for all the world to see, etc. Yes, that's right Dr. Ass, that's all I do is sit on my butt all day. Gawd!! Can you believe it? :nono:

Diploma'82 · May 11, 2007

I'm glad to know that I am not the only one who put the patients first--in front of the charting, but I really hated to stay over because we didn't have enough help or back-up for me to be able to do it DURING the shift.

June55Baby · May 11, 2007

1. All people in leadership positions are there because they couldn't hack it at the bedside.

Include in the above, Quality Management Nurses, Infection Control Nurses, Employee Health Nurses, etc, etc, etc. No mention that some of us hacked it at the bedside for 20 years before our health demended that we find a "desk job".

One that gets me is when people say, if you can't make it in college, you can always go to nursing school.... :angryfire

Or heard this the other day from a teenage checker at the grocery store... "I think I'm gonna go to nursing school so I can wear scrubs to wrk everyday!"

:uhoh21:

mamason · May 11, 2007

I'm glad to know that I am not the only one who put the patients first--in front of the charting but I really hated to stay over because we didn't have enough help or back-up for me to be able to do it DURING the shift.[/quote']
Yep, I hate to stay late too. But, sometimes you just have one of those days where it's in constant motion. I do try to get my charting done as soon as possible. I don't like to wait until the end of my shift. I'm afraid I'll leave something out. Our charting is extensive and I'm new to the meditech system we use. SO,that in it's self is time consuming. But, when pts have ongoing problems you have to prioritize. So, I can relate to what you are saying here.