Do you feel valued as a nurse?

[hillary1992]

I'm planning to go back to school for an ABSN program and am trying to gather as much info as I can about the profession. So my question is: do you feel valued as a nurse?

Some context: I have the utmost respect for all medical professionals but some people I've spoken to have expressed the opinion that nurses are much more "disposable" than doctors and that working under demanding or rude physicians can be demoralizing. Without any firsthand experience my guess is that this totally depends on the situation. A few people have suggested PA school which I had never considered. I'm still leaning towards nursing but I'd love your insight on how you see your job fitting in the healthcare system as a whole.

[FutureNurseInfo]

So you are planning on doing accelerated nursing. So am I. That means you have a degree in another field. I assume you want a change due same reasons I have. Your initial thoughts were correct: nurses can be valued or disrespected based on the situation (location, population, and many other variables). That is why it is important going into nursing as a second, or third career, to keep an open mind and have reasonable expectations. If you have a thick skin, work well under pressure, and can multi-task, I think you should be fine.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

So my question is: do you feel valued as a nurse?... some people I've spoken to have expressed the opinion that nurses are much more "disposable" than doctors and that working under demanding or rude physicians can be demoralizing. Without any firsthand experience my guess is that this totally depends on the situation.

You will get both ends of the spectrum depending on the hospital and possibly even different floors of the same hospital.

As for me, I am valued by our doctors. NICUs are in a unique situation compared to many other hospital departments. Our doctors (Neonatologists, Fellows, Residents) are in our department 24/7, so we work with the doctors closely throughout the day. I had a parent say to one of our Neonatologists "Here comes the boss". The doctor immediately responded "No, they are the bosses (pointing to me and the other nurses)". I have also heard from numerous Residents (bottom the food chain for doctors) that they have been told by their Attending (Neonatologist) never ever disrespect or think you are superior to the nurses. Disrespecting the nurse would result in the Attending making the Resident's life a living Hell.

[hillary1992]

This is super insightful, thank you! With zero experience going in I'm leaning heavily towards Labor & Delivery. I definitely get that that this would change depending on the situation but it's really great to hear from people who have been there and done that!