Do You Look Like A Nurse?

[showbizrn]

Periodically during my 20-plus years in nursing, when I use a credit card that identifies me as a nurse, I have been told, "Oh, you're a nurse? You LOOK like a nurse."

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

DO YOU LOOK LIKE A NURSE?

(Sorry, folks. I KNOW I should've asked the question to all those involved what they meant by "You look like a nurse" but I was always too chicken) :trout:

Yet the question remains...

SHOWBIZRN

[pearls]

Well I'm a student right now and when people ask me at school whats my major....before i even say out they say "let me Guess a nurse" and then i'm like yeah how did u guess then they in turn reply Beacue u "look like one" or they say u will make a great nurse. how ironic :) but it give me aboost to continue so to all the nurses out there you are doing a great job

[Logos]

Ok- this might not be incredibly relevant- and I am only a nursing student- and for what it is worth I have actually been asked if I was a nurse many times- and way before I ever decided to go to nursing school. My mom told me to go be a nurse- and I always said no way- I don't want to be a nurse- things change-

Anyway- What is annoying the heck out of me about this thread is that some posters are acting like nurses are the only people who have calm, competent, kind demeanors and are authoritarians. I have a degree and a 20 year career in something completely different than nursing and I too am very no nonsense, kind, professional etc. etc.

Some of you guys are giving yourselves really big heads. Nurses do not corner the market on caring and professionalism or competence. I say that with respect for nurses-

Maybe I'm just in a mood today- but come on- your not saints- your nurses and no it is not the same thing. I was thinking just the opposite- some people look like they are in the medical profession not because they look so kind and heartwarming, but because they look hardened.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Huh. I've never been told that I looked like a nurse, but on the other hand, I've never been told that I DIDN'T look like a nurse.....I guess, like so many other people, I don't "look like" the occupant of any particular job!

Does my cousin look like a florist? Another cousin look like a lawyer? Yet another cousin look like a dentist, and still another look like an accountant? Can't say that they do, LOL!

I HAVE been told that I look like "a mom"; just assume it's the out of fashion (yet very comfortable) jeans and easy-to-care-for haircut!

[Selke]

I have noticed that many nursing professors, especially the "older" old school women, look and act like post-Vatican II nuns. They dress alike (plain and frumpy, polyester, sensible shoes, no jewelry, little or no makeup), many are single (or closeted lesbians), are totally devoted to their research or school politics in lieu of a personal life, and are irritatingly perky about how wonderful the calling of nursing is as opposed to other more lucrative professions with more status, like medicine.