Does Everyone Actually Hate Nurses?

[Casha9]

I am about to begin nursing school in a few weeks, and everywhere I turn I feel like I hear a bunch of negativity towards nurses. It seems like nurses are the bottom of the food chain, but is that really true? People keep saying to me, "why would you only want to be a nurse?" - like it's a bad thing. I realize that you have to earn your own respect, and that it isn't easy. Maybe it's just a mix of media and too many fears swimming through my head. Are nurses really as disrespected and disliked as everyone makes it sound?

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Actually, nursing has been at the top of the "Most Trusted Professions" list for many years

Most trusted is vastly different than most respected.

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

Your question is timely. Just two days ago I was talking with my mom about certain relatives and she said, "I'm so glad that my daughters have grown up to be educated, hard working, professional women." Made me so happy to hear she is proud of us, especially since two of us are RNs.

[HelloWish, ADN, BSN]

I am loving reading this thread, as I am about to start nursing school!!!

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I got a lot of the same reaction from everyone I talked to when I first decided to go to nursing school, for two reasons: the low pay and that I was "too smart." I went to a private school from K-12 and many of my family members are very successful. I will never do even half as well as a lot of my family members being a bedside nurse. Even if I made $100,000 a year I wouldn't even touch a quarter of my father's yearly take home pay when he was making the most he ever made in textiles (before textiles all went to Mexico), and I have a couple other family members with multiple vacation homes, Escalades, etc. I will never do that well as a bedside nurse and I think they probably look down on me for it. When most of your family is white-collar, you end up being the black sheep of the family when you take a low-paid blue collar job like nursing.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Actually, nursing has been at the top of the "Most Trusted Professions" list for many years

This is exactly what I was going to say. If anything, the generalizations I've heard were more along the lines of "what selfless work," "thank God for people like you," "what important work," "my nurse made my hospitalization bearable." Almost OVER-praising nurses, like perpetuating the angel of mercy image. Not that nurses aren't selfless or doing important work, but we're also working for a living. Hope that makes sense! :)

As for the "only" a nurse question, I've found that the assumption that we're stopping at a middle rung either 1) don't fully get what we do, or 2) think that we're in the same heirarchy as physicians. Kind of like a step up from a CNA is a nurse, a step up from a nurse is a physician. (This isn't true--they are separate disciplines. They practice medicine; we practice nursing which includes but is not limited to implementing medical orders. As far as the workplace structure, we report to nurse-managers, not physicians. We have two distinct hierarchies.)

You know what you can say in response to #2 is that actually nursing has many opportunities for advancement--nurse practitioner, nursing professor, clinical nurse specialist, etc.--BUT that it's a great profession in its own right should you find you're happy at the bedside.

As for #1, I like to tell a story from my own nursing school days. Believing the nursing shortage line, Oprah Winfrey had an RN on her show as a guest. (I didn't see the episode--my instructor was telling this story.) Oprah asked her what nurses do, and she said, "Well we pass meds..." My instructor said "I was so mad! We don't just pass meds--we have to know why they're taking the med, what side effects to look for, who SHOULDN'T take the med, the pharmacokinetics of the med, and drug interactions." Most people outside of nursing/medicine/pharmacy don't know this. They just see that the nurse administers the meds. Unfortunately, in this case an RN perpetuated this misconception on Oprah.

[ixchel]

Around here, RNs wear navy blue scrubs. I used to want those navy blues so badly I could taste it. Now that I have my own navy blues, the way I am treated in public when I am wearing them is amazing. Respect and appreciation are the most applicable words that come to mind. Sometimes I'll run I to a stranger who tells me that they are on their own journey toward their navy blue scrubs. This respect is from all parts of the income spectrum. I'm still a new grad without any dust settled on my degree, so it still feels incredibly exciting to experience this. I have a lot of pride in what I've accomplished and if anyone looked down on it, I would think they are nuts. Anyone who says you're "too smart to just be a nurse" has no idea what nursing is or what it is capable of.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Oh, and we are professionals who can be individually sued for malpractice.

[ixchel]

Oh, and we are professionals who can be individually sued for malpractice.

I just purchased my malpractice policy and felt like such an important grown up. Hahaha :)

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Every nurse should have malpractice insurance.

[ixchel]

Every nurse should have malpractice insurance.

I have a nurse friend who thinks it's ridiculous. "Think positive," he says. (I really want to correct his grammar, but don't.) To anyone reading who chooses to not have it, get it. It doesn't just pay out malpractice suit losses. You have lawyers who will defend YOU (it's not necessarily the hospital's best interest to do that). You have lawyers to assist in actions against your license. You can file claims to recoup losses of salary due to a case. You are protected if you assist someone outside of work and have a claim filed against you by that person. Obviously a hospital won't assist you with something that didn't happen in the hospital, and if your state is like mine, being licensed means if you come up on a person in need of medical attention, you must help. Get protection for this. It's stupidly cheap so there are no excuses.

/soapbox rant

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

I know what you mean. When I started nursing school everyone came out of the wood work to whine at me about how they see nurses doing nothing or just standing around talking. I take the time to explain to them what they think is nothing is actually a whole lot of very necessary activity -- also, I ask what exactly is it they think nurses should be doing. Keep in mind, though, we are the "tough love" givers of the situation. Pts must to a lot to heal themselves -- we aren't there to do it all for them -- quite the opposite. I think that's where people get negative about nurses, too. They think they're just meanies who don't want to do anything for them when they fail to realize they were being encouraged to do for themselves for their own good. Oh well. It's just ignorance. Don't worry about it. You'll understand when you start clinicals -- it will be a massive eye-opener.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I know what you mean. When I started nursing school everyone came out of the wood work to whine at me about how they see nurses doing nothing or just standing around talking.

You have an extremely salient point. Many of the people who think we sit a lot and do nothing tend to have what I call the 'factory worker mentality.' Essentially, these folks think a person must be doing nothing if he/she is seated, talking on the phone, or in front of a computer. They equate 'real work' with manual labor, plenty of movement, and running up and down the halls.

Many of these people fail to grasp the concept of nurses as knowledge workers who are not paid for what we do, but for what we know. The nurse in front of the computer is looking up lab values prior to giving that next dose of Digoxin or Dilantin. The nurse on the phone might be reporting a serious deterioration of a patient's condition to the attending physician.

Although these actions constitute legitimate work regarding potential life or death situations, the uninformed fools of the world will always think a nurse is lazy and doing nothing all day if he/she sits without much physical movement.

Like I previously mentioned, nurses are not paid for what we do. We are paid for what we know. If the knowledge base is unimportant and the physical labor of a job is so important, these folks with the 'factory worker mentalities' can arrange for their acutely ill loved ones to receive all their care from medication aides and unlicensed caregivers with 9th grade educations. After all, the med aide and unlicensed caregiver are busting their butts to do 'real work,' right?

Meanwhile, I'll sit on the sidelines with the popcorn and soda to see how it works out...