Do you experience jealousy from friends/family members?

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To any RN/LPNs do you experience jealousy from friends/family members or even co-workers over the fact that you actually accomplished a diploma/ADN/Bachelors Degree or higher in nursing? If so, what do they say and how do you react to it?

Specializes in Operating Room.
There's no jealousy in my family/friend groups.....

There is a little tension with old college friends who have lost their jobs in this economy. They know I'm in grad school, working my fingers to the bone.... but when I make time for a nice vacation, etc, they make it sound like I'm wiping my butt with $20 bills....

I've gotten something similar to this..The same people who questioned why on earth I'd want to be a nurse and "wipe butts all day" are working retail with their degrees in psychology. Some familiy members are resentful too but they're the type that hate anyone who has a stable union job-they attack my dad too because he's a retired firefighter-how dare he get a pension for putting his life on the line!:banghead:
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To any RN/LPNs do you experience jealousy from friends/family members or even co-workers over the fact that you actually accomplished a diploma/ADN/Bachelors Degree or higher in nursing? If so, what do they say and how do you react to it?

There are always people who think that working hard to improve one's life and prospects, not to speak of family security, is somehow cheating.

Just my opinion, but they seem to be making excuses for not being willing to do the work to improve their own lives.

They don't really deserve the time of day, and fortunately my family has none of those. I thank my parents for their insistence and sacrifice to help me get a good education, often against my will, and have a life-long sense of curiosity and love of learning.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Just my opinion, but they seem to be making excuses for not being willing to do the work to improve their own lives.

They don't really deserve the time of day, and fortunately my family has none of those.

I agree! Since most of my friends/family have at least as much education and most more than I do there aren't any hard feelings. I'm very particular about my close friends and heck as far as family is concerned I'm not married to them either so if they decided to start acting like morons they could hit the highway. :D

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I've never experienced any jealousy - but like many of those who posted, having two bachelor's degrees means I'm less educated than most of my friends and family. I make more money than some of those with more education (especially in the current economy) but their potential earnings are higher than mine until I go back to school for a comparable degree. They think I'm a little too blue collar, actually...I tended bar for several years before finally settling on nursing as a career.

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I do have friends who are jealous and insecure because I always have a job, and if I am unhappy, I just dispose of it and get another one. Not a whole lot of people can just do that. Most people can't. Most people also can't move anywhere in the country they wish and still work. Most people can't travel nurse, agency nurse, choose their hours, or choose where they work. Many of them are lucky to have a minimum wage job. I realized very early in life I wanted a world of choice, and nursing has allowed me some choices.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

When I trained to be a nurse my mother was mortified because she felt I was far too educated to be a nurse. My mothers opinion of nursing was bedpans bedpans, bedpans. She did end up being proud of me in the end.

My friends do not envy me being a nurse they dont know how I can do it and they respect me for my dedication, long hours and patience.

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

NOCNewbie...LMAO!!!!!

And, no, I haven't. My family is very proud of me and loves to hear my stories... a lot of my friends are nurses so we, too, bond over stories. My friends that aren't nurses don't get it and think I'm crazy..and then there are those who have no idea WHY I'd want to do what I do.

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I experience the exact opposite. I come from a pretty highly educated family (MDs, DOs, attorneys, PhDs/professors, successful business owners) and they don't understand ,nor comprehend, why on earth I chose to go into nursing. They routinely bug me with questions like "So, when are you going think straight and go to medical school?" and pester me with statements like "Did you have fun wiping a$$ at work today?"

When I first told them I was accepted into nursing school they all pretty much started laughing and said they didn't know nurses had to go to even go to school. They said things like "What, so they can teach you at what angle to hold the basin as the person is vomitting??"

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Specializes in NICU Level III.
I experience the exact opposite. I come from a pretty highly educated family (MDs, DOs, attorneys, PhDs/professors, successful business owners) and they don't understand ,nor comprehend, why on earth I chose to go into nursing. They routinely bug me with questions like "So, when are you going think straight and go to medical school?" and pester me with statements like "Did you have fun wiping a$$ at work today?"

When I first told them I was accepted into nursing school they all pretty much started laughing and said they didn't know nurses had to go to even go to school. They said things like "What, so they can teach you at what angle to hold the basin as the person is vomitting??"

I'm glad I don't run into too many MDs like that.

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I am a LPN, I have a lot of friends that are happy for me and my family too. But my cousin's wife never stop telling me about a daughter of her cousin who is going to school to be an RN, she always telling that she not going to be a LPN, but an RN. She always said LPN don't get hire anymore. By the way she is a CNA. The way she talks, it like LPN's are nobody. Anyway, I don't pay too much attention to her, I know she is just jealous. When I said after working about six I am going back to school to be an RN, she give me:no: that look. I know after I will graduate as an RN she will start talking about some family's member whose in school to be a doctor:D.

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I experience the exact opposite. I come from a pretty highly educated family (MDs, DOs, attorneys, PhDs/professors, successful business owners) and they don't understand ,nor comprehend, why on earth I chose to go into nursing. They routinely bug me with questions like "So, when are you going think straight and go to medical school?" and pester me with statements like "Did you have fun wiping a$$ at work today?"

When I first told them I was accepted into nursing school they all pretty much started laughing and said they didn't know nurses had to go to even go to school. They said things like "What, so they can teach you at what angle to hold the basin as the person is vomitting??"

Wow. I had no idea that people view RNs with such little respect.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
Wow. I had no idea that people view RNs with such little respect.

Fortunately I believe that was an extreme example. Imo, if you are pursuing it, you should accept the fact that nursing is largely considered a blue collar profession. Not that there is one thing wrong with that I'm quite proud to be a nurse.

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