I am in a two year RN program at a community college. I have a law degree, and I am studying nursing so I can do HealthCare Law or Medical Malpractice. No one at my school knows that I have a law degree (except the administrator), and I don't plan to tell them, because I don't want to answer legal questions for the next two years, or draw attention to myself.
Sadly, I am disappointed with many of my classmates in nursing school. They are very boring to talk to and somewhat blue-collar-ish. I am always friendly towards them, but half of them don't return my friendly gestures because they probably don't understand my nature (I am shy and reserved, but pleasant). My classmates in law school were just so much more interesting, and friendly! I got along great with all of them. I was expecting to really like my nursing classmates too, because I thought most nurses were really nice people. But these people are just working class snobs (they don't like anyone who does not act working class like them).
I probably should have applied to a Masters level Nursing program, in order to find people like myself in nursing school.
I was just wondering if others out there are a "fish out of water" in their nursing programs.
I can imagine the flip-side of this sort of scenario just as easily. Imagine one of your nurse friends gets into law school. She comes back to the unit and rants, "They are snobs, and they argue and discuss things that have no bearing in reality waaay too much, beyond debate in class. And the egos, OMG!"
I doubt we'd see an outcry like we see here, when the situation is reversed. Perception and perspective, you know.
How can this get her kicked out of nursing school, if she is passing all of her classes? Are you implying that her classmates will frame her, or be so hostile to her that she can't perform in her clinicals?
OK, maybe I did go in over my head there. However, if she keeps on acting like the "odd-ball" out and generating herself as being "better" than others, than yes, she will eventually cause drama and get herself kicked out. Not everyone she comes across in her nursing program is going to appreciate her attitude and is going to stick up for themself.
I don't think it will necessarily get her "kicked out", however if she can't handle working around other people from all different walks of life, than I doubt she'll last long anyway.
And to the original poster of this thread. I'm not trying to be mean in anyway. I think you deserve a second chance to try and prove yourself to your classmates, but please for the sake of your sanity, STOP judging everyone.
You also have to keep in mind that you are going into a very stressful field. Nurses are constantly busy caring for their patients. Stop putting so much emphasis on what people think about you and what you think about other people and use your time to think of better ways to care for you patient.
Me personally. If I had a student nurse who cared more about what people thought about her and less about ME as a patient, I would think she was not CUT out to be a nurse. I mean come on...They say that nursing is the #1 job for gossip and drama, but you can at least wait until you actually hold the title as being a nurse....:chuckle
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I think, as has been said, that class is an extremely touchy subject and she inadvertently opened a can o' worms.
My upbringing in a blue-collar household thwarted my ability to converse in a stimulating manner, because I had accumulated no cultural capital during my childhood and adolescence. My privileged peers from professional households had been exposed to valuable forms of cultural capital such as traveling abroad, art museums, live theater, and so forth. On the other hand, I had never even been on an airplane until age 24. My privileged peers were taught by their parents to actively challenge authority figures, negotiate until they got what they wanted, and to exercise their sense of entitlement. On the other hand, I was taught to NEVER challenge an authority figure, always be polite and follow orders of the people in charge, that things are not negotiable, and that I was not entitled to anything.
I had to learn how to communicate and converse with members of the professional middle class in early adulthood, because my upbringing did not prepare me for mingling with other discourse communities. Social class is very real. Unfortunately, people become angry at the very mention of it.
Ok, seriously. I'm no troll:smokin:. This is just a touchy subject for me. Before anyone walks into the nursing field--they should know that they have to be a people person or at LEAST warm up to other people a lot quicker. I know that the OP is going into the nursing field to work on the legal side of the health care field, but she should at LEAST have some consideration for people who are unlike her. One thing that ALL nurses should have in common is being a "people person" being that they are constantly working with someone new.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
But when I went home, I said to my mother, bewildered, "Mommy, they were eating chicken wings!" Mom just said, "Yes, Susan, they're poor."
During childhood, the food selections that could be found in my parents' kitchen included low-cost and/or unhealthy stuff such as ramen noodles, Kool-Aid, fried chicken, beans, rice, pickles, and hot dogs. If I wanted dessert, my father would sprinkle some sugar over steamed white rice and put a little margarine on the top.
Healthier foods would have cost too much. In addition, learning how to properly hold a spoon or fork was too challenging with these types of meals.
I was very lucky. Every Saturday was spent at the library with my dad and brother. Getting my own card - which required writing my own - required hours of practice and I can still remember my dad's face beaming down at me while I painstakingly wrote out my name.
Sometimes he would take us to the museums of NYC. We were being educated all the time, without even knowing it.
But I was taught enough to not comment on other people's differences, or to hurt them.
I was also taught that I was more fortunate than most, and that I was never to mock anyone, ever, for any reason.
I :redbeathe you, TC. It is a difficult task to see things as they are and change them. My parents did, and your children will have the benefits they gave me.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Commuter,
"Cultural capital" is an interesting term. I've never heard it before, but it makes sense.
Click the link below to read an article that explains the concept of cultural capital. Cultural capital consists of the forms of knowledge, skills, education, and advantages that a person has, which give them a higher status in society. Parents provide their children with cultural capital by transmitting the attitudes and knowledge needed to succeed in the current educational system.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Anyone who is interested in this subject may want to read Unequal Childhoods by Annette Lareau. It is excellent reading that reaffirms what I already knew.
I am in a two year RN program at a community college. I have a law degree, and I am studying nursing so I can do HealthCare Law or Medical Malpractice. No one at my school knows that I have a law degree (except the administrator), and I don't plan to tell them, because I don't want to answer legal questions for the next two years, or draw attention to myself.
Sadly, I am disappointed with many of my classmates in nursing school. They are very boring to talk to and somewhat blue-collar-ish. I am always friendly towards them, but half of them don't return my friendly gestures because they probably don't understand my nature (I am shy and reserved, but pleasant). My classmates in law school were just so much more interesting, and friendly! I got along great with all of them. I was expecting to really like my nursing classmates too, because I thought most nurses were really nice people. But these people are just working class snobs (they don't like anyone who does not act working class like them).
I probably should have applied to a Masters level Nursing program, in order to find people like myself in nursing school.
I was just wondering if others out there are a "fish out of water" in their nursing programs.
This cannot be a real post. In this one post you put down community college, blue collar workers, working class people, those with lower level degrees, and nurses. I find your post offensive, and snobbish. I have well educated friends, and they do not display this type of attitude toward others. I find that usually people who are secure with themselves are accepting of others (even those whom they believe are below their station in life). I think your problem with making friends may be a direct result of your attitude.
Multicollinearity, BSN, RN
3,119 Posts
I can imagine the flip-side of this sort of scenario just as easily. Imagine one of your nurse friends gets into law school. She comes back to the unit and rants, "They are snobs, and they argue and discuss things that have no bearing in reality waaay too much, beyond debate in class. And the egos, OMG!"
I doubt we'd see an outcry like we see here, when the situation is reversed. Perception and perspective, you know.