I would like to first say that I come from a family full of nurses, both sides (so I've seen the fight to show that nursing is a professional field first-hand, 1970's onward).
I also have factory worker relatives, and I have respect for hard working people. I am not trying to diss on someone who works in a factory -- it's difficult and honest work. It's not an easy way to make ends meet.
However, where I live in Ohio, something strange is happening. All the trade schools, community colleges and even some universities are push, push, pushing displaced factory and auto workers into nursing due to (you guessed it) "guaranteed employment, plenty of jobs etc." (yeah, RIGHT!)
There's practically an LPN or RN evening/weekend program on every corner, and all the websites show a guy (God forbid they show a female nurse) who lost his job in the auto plant last week in scrubs, putting up an IV or something like that (you should surf the web and see some for yourselves!). Some of these guys look kind of unkempt or need a shave (sorry, not trying to be mean!).
Of course I am very happy for someone who gets a new career in this terrible recession, and works hard to earn a nursing credential. That deserves recognition and respect. But sometimes I wonder if the profession of nursing, which has fought so hard since the 1970's to be considered a white-collar, professional occupation, is going to suffer a big image hit due to these fly-by-night colleges PUSHING "get your RN, get your LPN, make money" to literally everyone with a pulse and then flooooooding the market.
There are lots of news stories up here in Ohio that contribute to this image of "Anyone can do it! Easy money!" They always interview a guy who barely graduated from high school, got laid off from the factory, uses poor grammar, and now he almost has his RN license.
Again -- that's is wonderful for him, and I respect that. If he can pass the courses and the tests, kudos to him! He deserves his success! But it worries me that this situation is going to make nursing look like a non-professional occupation in the future.
People should not go into anything just for the money, especially nursing. You need to have a passion. There are no sure-fire recession-proof jobs anymore; it really doesn't matter what you choose in college (I know first-hand due to a derailed librarian career that was booming in 2000). So, choose your calling!
I hope I did not offend anyone. I just wonder what will happen in the future. My aunt was the head nurse in a large hospital in Columbus, and she was one of those people who fought like hell to let people know that nursing is a professional medical occupation -- not a glorified bottom-wiping job!
Nurses know as much or MORE than doctors. I worry that people are going to forget this.
I will always be a registered nurse, but the legacy of being a blue collar worker with ink and paper cuts all over my hands, that will be part of my soul forever. The day Brown Printing shuts down, it'll be the equivalent of bethelehem steel shutting down for several generations of families in the ABE area. And I will cry my eyes out.
Thx for the kudos and the hug. I enjoyed your post about brown printing as well. I can tell that we see eye to eye on most of this topic. I can only hope that everyone catches the hidden message in the last sentence of my post.
Hi I'm a Nursing student from OHIO. I am a female, and did work at an automotive factory that went under in 2009. I did not actually work in the factory, but was the buyer/planner for the company. I was in this position because of my skills and brains. I was doing a job of someone with a BA but I had no degree. When my company went under, since I had no college education, I could not find a job. I applied to nursing school and was accepted. I placed at the top of the entrance exams and so far am carrying an A average. My school requires us to dress for the job everday in class. We obviously wear scrubs and leather shoes. My school is very hands on and I feel I am getting great training. Not all schools are like this. I just wanted to let you know that there are people in OHIO who will graduate and become great nurses.
P.S. And yes I'm glad that I'm entering a field where there are jobs and the pay is good.:)
On the other hand we must also understand that the historical data indicates that most nursing students leave the trade the first year after graduation.
Do you have links to the studies that show this? Just curious about what the actual stats are. I have not known any nurses leave the field after one year (not that I know many outside my graduating class and co-workers), and all 20 from my graduating class are still working as nurses except one with medical issues who is on disability. I would be very surprised to see that most leave nursing within a year.
But the nurse also brings with them to their practice the honored experiences of the factory worker. So when their patient says, "I can't afford these meds," and "I don't mind taking these meds but how am I going to work?" and "My boss might not let me take the extra break I need to breast pump" and "We're not allowed to have food and water at the machines, so how am I going to take my Depakote four times a day while I'm at work?" and (especially true at Brown).."With my asthma/allergies, how am I ever going to fill pockets with scent cards???" (Scent cards, those perfume advertisement pages in magazines, come in boxes of 500 per box with 4 boxes open at a time....imagine inhaling that 12 hours in a row!)
.......that nurse can understand where that patient is coming from, and not scoff it off in their heads and roll their eyes and chart that the patient is noncompliant.
What on earth would make you think that those of us RNs who haven't been factory workers would respond in that way? That's certainly not been my experience. There's obviously plenty of stereotyping to go around on both sides of this discussion ...
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
Hi,
I'm a 31 year old male and about to apply at a local BSN program. Even though I'm not too bright, I've got a high prereq GPA with plenty of community service and will most likely be accepted into the BSN program.
During the past 10 years I've worked at a factory, leaning on a drill and getting dirty before joining the Army and crawling in the mud for a while. I don't shave every day. I'll be a nurse soon. I hope you don't have a big problem with that.
You can work with me any day...........as long as you have some compassions for the pts. and know what you are doing..........your Army background would sure help on my psych unit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
You can work with me any day...........as long as you have some compassions for the pts. and know what you are doing..........your Army background would sure help on my psych unit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ps........we will get you to shave, too !!!!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: I have skimmed through most of this thread. No disrespect intended to all the posters ... it's hard for old eyes to read large blocks of uninterrupted text. I think, though, I've gotten the gist of the discussion. Here's my take on the issue.
First, this is a conflict that's gone on since Nightengale established the first professional nursing service. Before this, bedside nursing in hospitals was done pretty much by poor women, often alcoholic and "morally loose" women off the streets ... hospitals used pretty much "anyone with a pulse" back then, too.
The convent-like practices of nursing schools and hospital nursing services post-Nightengale were a deliberate attempt to differentiate Nightengale's nurses from "those people" and to attract a "better class" of woman into the profession.
Since then, nursing along with teaching has been a key pathway to working-class women looking to gain some financial control over their own lives as well as a leg up on the social ladder.
In my own almost 40 years in the business, the best nurses I've known are those who worked their way up from aide to LPN to RN, using the income from one job to finance the next step. I, myself, earned my way through school as a factory worker! It would be a shame to lose that pathway because of some misguided elitism.
My point being, professionalism is not a function of class background but of one's knowledge base, ability and demeanor on the job. The OP has since disclaimed any disrespect for blue-collar workers ... but the title did say "factory worker" and not "middle management" or "web-designer" or "sales rep".
While I agree with concerns over the quality of the education offered during this current rush to train more nurses, I also have concerns over the "hierarchy of worthiness" being expressed when we bemoan people entering the field for "just a paycheck."
I was reading a thread a while back in which a CRNA student declared, "I'm in this to make bank ..." While I had the same visceral reaction of "yuck", I had to ask myself who the heck cares how he "feels" about his patient if the patient comes through surgery alive with no intra-operative calamities to impede recovery?
The professional gives the same quality care and critical thinking to every patient, regardless of her/his personal feelings about that pt or the job.
OP, I've been at the bedside just about as long as you've been alive and I can tell you, this too shall pass.
In the eighties, the "big thing" for great money and job security was computer science.
In the nineties it was the business degree (MBA).
This decade it's nursing.
The shake-out will happen, both in the workforce as marginal workers drop out and in the educational field as the marginal schools lose their accreditations and student bases.
IMHO, we need to tend to our own skills and competencies and let the "image" take care of itself.
Forgive me - I did not mean to imply that ALL nurses who were not factory workers would say this, think this, or roll their eyes. I meant that those who worked in the factories would empathize with this much easier and would be more likely to understand.
My apologies. I was so passionate about what I felt that I did not point this out.
Specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.
As long as they don't dumb down the curriculum I dont really have a problem with it. I do agree that it is going to flood the market which is not a good thing for any of us. If these people can do the work then who are we to object. Besides, it might work in our favor. Anyone who hasn't been in school for 20 years or so since high school is going to find the course work challenging. Maybe some will fail and have a better appreciation for how much we know and how hard we have worked to get where we are.
As far as your assertion that nurses know just as much or more than doctors, that is just silly. Not to take anything away from us, but lets be for real, you cant compare an associates degree with a graduate degree. As dedicated as we have had to be to get through school, they have worked just as hard if not harder. I have MDs in my family and trust me, all through med school, they have no life. Lets give credit where credit is due.
Aoretta
15 Posts
As an addendum:
I will always be a registered nurse, but the legacy of being a blue collar worker with ink and paper cuts all over my hands, that will be part of my soul forever. The day Brown Printing shuts down, it'll be the equivalent of bethelehem steel shutting down for several generations of families in the ABE area. And I will cry my eyes out.
RWsCoverGirl4VR (Robert Weinsteiger's cover girl forever).