Discussion, please share your opinions on this.

itsmejuli · Mar 17, 2011

That's one person's opinion, does it really matter?

Or are you writing a paper and need arguments against the opinion?

Katie5 · Mar 17, 2011

That's one person's opinion, does it really matter?
Or are you writing a paper and need arguments against the opinion?

No. Just curious to know, if indeed we were consciously/unconsciously schooled this way.

Altra, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2011

There may be some subtle truth to this.

What was Dellasega's second theory?

elkpark · Mar 17, 2011

"... Dellasega believes that nurses are trained to be subservient and uncertain, rather than independent and confident."
Thoughts.

That was certainly not the case in my hospital-based diploma program 30 years ago. I do think (observe) that many students more recently come out of nursing programs with not much confidence and a lot of uncertainty, based on what I perceive as negative changes in nursing education in general (I don't think that that's because the schools want them to turn out that way, though -- I think it's an unintended consequence).

merlee · Mar 17, 2011

Not in my diploma program, either!! We were taught to stand on our own two feet, to understand why we were doing things, question anything that didn't seem right.

And we stopped having to stand when a doc entered the nurses' station and relinquish our seat to him!!!!

There was backbiting even then, but not to the extent it goes on now.

NPinWCH · Mar 17, 2011

I disagree with the statement that we are taught to be subservient and uncertain. Did this person ever go to nursing school? How do they know we are taught that way.

I for one, was taught how to stand up for my patients, be an advocate for health and to treat doctors as peers, not as masters.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2011

I don' think it has anything to do with how we are taught. Women by nature are catty and competative and now with so many different levels of entry education it makes it worse.......just my 2cents

Katie5 · Mar 17, 2011

There may be some subtle truth to this.
What was Dellasega's second theory?

I was at the bookstore and stumbled across that, I'll have to pull it up again to see.

allnurses Guide · Mar 17, 2011

"subservient"

I disagree. Totally. I was taught to be subservient as an aide, but I absolutely have not been given that impression in nursing school.

"uncertain"

I disagree. Nursing school would be a breeze if I could get by on being "uncertain"!

allnurses Guide · Mar 17, 2011

I didn't know I was allowed to "break down".

Funny.

allnurses Guide · Mar 17, 2011

It seems to be implying that medical students are men, but aside from that in my case it's we were n e v e r taught to be subservient and uncertain. I wonder when that was written?

I'm always surprised to read how many students/younger nurses think that we were trained to be the "handmaiden" way back when. Not only did I not see it, I didn't see that behavior modeled by any of our instructors, either.

I really hate to say this, but medical students of today seem far more contemptuous of nurses now than they ever were before. I don't get it. Although I'm sure some of them may resent what they see as intrusion on their domain via our NPs and other Advanced Practice Nurses. The turf wars are just silly to me.

Not what you would expect, really but it's been my observation that older docs/attendings in general are more respectful than the medical students except for the notorious *******s but most likely they were born that way.