Is it just me or is this offensive?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi everybody! I work in a cardiology office after many years in the trenches. We have a nuc med tech that does our stresses and today she's telling me about this cousin of hers who is a CRNA and is so brilliant and says to me: "she is so smart, she really should have been a doctor, not a nurse". Weelllll, I didn't say anything but I was thinkin, 'scuse ME?!!!! So I pose the question, am I just being sensitive? This isn't the first of this kind of remark, opinion etc. So what do you think?

Specializes in ICU;CCU;Telemetry;L&D;Hospice;ER/Trauma;.

doctors are not smarter, they just went to school longer.

intelligence comes in many forms....not all intelligence is packaged in a white lab coat, with a stethoscope attached.

I have met some brilliant doctors in my career.....I have also met some that were as dumb as a box of rocks.

I have met nurses who would put some physcians to shame on some levels of intelligence and ingenuity. I have also met some nurses that left me shakin' my head....

Occupation has nothing to do with intelligence...

You might say to this person, "I have thought about your comment that your cousin who is a nurse, should have been a doctor, because she is so brilliant.....and I have decided that I for one, am glad that there are such brilliant nurses working at the bedside, because, the next time I am in a crisis, I know it's going to be a nurse who intervenes first, not a doctor, and by golly, I would want her/him to be brilliant!"

Most doctors will tell you that their lives are not anything like they envisioned....and many are emotionally and socially arrested because of their long hours of study and demanding schooling.

Personally, I plan on donating my brain to science....hehehe! I am sure there are some places in there that have yet to be discovered! HA!

Its true that the general population is very poorly educated on this subject. You don't hear people saying "You served my meal so well, you should be a pilot not just a stewardess" or "You are so well read you should be an author not a librarian" I don't know why people think that nurses are doctors that couldn't hack it. I suppose because we work so close together and the docs give the orders and are better paid they assume that we are just lower on the totem pole. Ah well, I just say "If I had wanted to be a doctor...I would've been a doctor, that is why I'm a nurse (to be):)"

The public doesn't know how much nurses do. They have no idea how clinical and practical nurses are and just how important their job is. From what I have seen CRNA, NP, PA etc. most of these are very close in training with physicians. All have grad programs with a slightly different focus.

i have a friend who is also a pre-nursing student like me and she said one day that i should go to med school and be a doctor because i am so smart.... :nono:

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

She might want to see what the doctors have to say about that. Most drs understand that they probly couldnt do most of their jobs without nurses.

Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.

My OWN UNCLE (recently named one of the top ten family physicians in all of Canada, so he should have some brains here!) has given me nothing but grief since I first started nursing school. "You're too smart to be a nurse" is his frequent comment. I usually just respond with "And I'm sure you would just love it if all your nurses were stupid." He's starting to get the picture now though, since granny has been coming to me instead of him with medical questions. She says I listen better!

I got a question: if smart people should be doctors instead of nurses, how come nurses spend so much time keeping the doctors' ney-neys out of the fire???

Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.
I got a question: if smart people should be doctors instead of nurses, how come nurses spend so much time keeping the doctors' ney-neys out of the fire???

AMEN!

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