Nursing, No Longer A White Woman's Job?

[Gomer]

Discussion overheard at lunch today: ER RN (white female) "discussing" her opinion with Respiratory Therapist (white, male) and EMT (black, male) that within 10-years white women will no longer be in the majority as far as bedside nursing goes. Her argument was that women have more opportunities to go into other professions than when she was young (guessing she's in her late 50's) and that since we are importing nurses from "third-world countries" no white woman will be a bedside RN in the future. EMT agreed and said that it's not just white women, that he wouldn't want his daughter or son to be a RN. The RT kept quiet and continued to eat his tuna sandwich.

So, I wonder, do any others of you feel that way? That is, that women (white, black, brown, etc) in America have more opportunities, more career choices now than ever before; and that the nursing profession will become the immigrant's first job in America?

[Maula, RN]

The fact is that for so long nursing was a white woman's profession. And that was the color of nursing. Today many nurses find it hard to believe I am one of them because I am not a white female. The automatic assumption is that I am a nursing assistant at best. So I understand what Gomer is saying and I sympathize with those who feel threatened although I don't understand it. We are in a severe nursing shortage and our patients are suffering. I don't care what color a nurse is if he, she, or he/she is competent. But many patients still have the perception that nursing is a white woman's profession and take some time to warm up to anybody not fitting that profile.

It's up to nurses to open up our minds and hearts to those different from us and join the common accord of providing high quality care for our increasingly ill patients.

[Jenny P]

Lots of interesting comments here; I was not impressed with the original posters' reasons for nursing to "no longer be a white woman's job" as though white women were: 1) the ONLY ones who do this job; and 2) nursing is a menial job!

My feelings are that nursing is highly complex and is becoming even more skilled every year! I welcome EVERYONE who can do it; no matter what color or creed they are as long as they are able to give highly skilled quality care to the sick person lying in that bed and emotional support to the family. Today our patients are so much sicker than they were 10 years ago, they are older, require more teaching in a shorter length of time, and our job at the bedside is much more difficult than we could have imagined it would ever be. Add to that the problems in nursing (short staffing, poor pay, job dissatisfation, etc.)-- why we should thnk our lucky stars that WE are still here doing this job and that minorities are also interested in doing it too!

If this thread is offensive to anyone; it does not need to be read by them. We all know how to pick and choose the topics here. Maybe some of the nay-sayers are not white women and that may be why they are offended-- I ask your forgiveness and tolerance and a more gentle handling of the direction of the thread.

Thank you.

Jenny P

[sandstormsdust]

Color/race/creed should ( I think I am repeating myself again ) should have NOTHING TO DO WITH IT....

Sure I think marks do in school.... and that's about all....

Rustyhammer your RIGHT... this racism thing is going way to far... lets just ignore the threads that have to do with racism....

[SKM-NURSIEPOOH, BSN, RN]

the fact of the matter is that this profession was predominately held by white females historically (i'm not making any racist judgments or comments here so please, hold the flaming)....the nursing profession has slowly changed over the course of time...now, there's many minorities including males (white or otherwise) that are making nursing their own. i say hooray for change & diversity...perhaps with more males going into nursing, tptb might take us nurses more seriously & we'll finally get the respect that this dedicated profession so richly deserves!

i'm saddened to see some people are still "sick" to death about any topic that has any hint of "race" to it...just because you've never had to face racism doesn't means that it doesn't exist...sadly, it does...the only way to work this situation out is to talk about it...& for some people...it's coming to this bbs & wanting to discuss this amongst friends & acquaintances within & out of this country. why must those few individuals want to just sweep that topic under the table just because they've themselves have no affiliations or weren't directly affected by it. those comments such as "alright already" or "this topic again" or "jesus christ...", is so demeaning, disrespectful, insensitive, & dismissive at the least to those who truly need to vent about it. one could be a little bit more conservative, selective, & or professional with those types of statements...like some others posters have said, if this isn't a topic to your liking or if you're "tired" of it already, then don't participate in it if you've don't have anything constructive to say...but leave those who do want to civilly talk about it alone . where would we all be if we nurses didn't have these bbs to go to in order to vent about how the public, suits, docs, & other healthcare professionals treat & perceive us (on the job & off)!!!

this thread topic was neither racist nor was it inflammatory...i just saw it for what it was...gomer asking for our opinions about a conversation that he'd overheard at work...that's all...nothing more...nothing less...it wasn't his intention to be inflammatory at all.

with that said...i'll ask: who's really being overly sensitive about "race" now?

[MollyJ]

Actually, I heard Gloria Steinem speak once many years ago and she quoted a man who complained that too many women were contaminating professional fields. She noted that this "contamination" brought with it greater challenges and remuneration for women and it was her dream that women would contaminate as many professional fields as possible. I kind of find the quoted words in the original post similar in thinking to the man Steinem quoted.

I STILL think that nursing is a field that with a pretty cost effective education investment, can provide a pretty decent living wage. Is it an extravagant living? No. Glamorous? Does it involve wearing nice suits to work? No and NO. Does it involve hard work? Yes.

My parents were both 8th grade educated and they worked physically very hard to feed and clothe us. They were proud of the educational attainment my diploma in nursing represented. They knew I worked hard, but I've had a lot more choice and control over what I did than my 8th grade educated parents. And I saw better life-time earnings than they dreamed of.

For a person willing to do the caring and hard work of nursing, I would recommend it. And the "bad nurse" quoted in the original post isn't exactly wrong in saying that women who are in college DO have a greater diversity of choices and nursing, for all the aforementioned reasons, may be less attractive than others.

The times when a woman seeking professional education had two choices, teaching and nursing, are a cliche of the past. Those facts have changed the face of nursing. Those of us who chose it and chose to stay, do it because we love nursing. Many of us looked at the exec positions and the computer training and found them too bloodless, too removed from being with people in the intense and "real" way nursing provides. We do better to embrace the reality that their are many paths to nursing, but if you love what you do and are proud of it, you should greet other like minded thinkers (regardless of skin color or country of origin, like so many of you have said so well).

In my region, we desparately need hispanic, spanish-speaking nurses and those out of eastern cultures such as vietnamese. We need their cultural expertise. So many aspects of traditional hispanic culture CAN conspire to prevent girls from even thinking beyond high school culture. In my high school, our greatest failure to complete HS was among hispanic girls. I told my hs counselors that I would be willing to mentor any high risk student who was intersted in nursing, but how much more impactful that would be coming from a "minority" nurse (hate the term, but I'm trying to impart an idea here). I came from a poor white family, but my experience is that I have some common experiences with poor families of cultural diversity--no one expected much of me (except for a few teachers), I was steered toward "lesser" career choices, no one mentioned a university education to me (and probably with reason, since juco's are good for first generation college attenders).

Well, I rambled. Anyhow, in a perfect world we should embrace our cultural diversity and realize we need their knowledge and skills. There are some really fine kids in our high schools that we should be targeting and talking to about nursing ed and they probably aren't necessarily the kids whose parents are college educated themselves.

[jevans]

Joy

Not cross at you cross that you should have to overhear such nonsense

Sorry

j

[live4today, RN]

Originally posted by jayna

Hey Renee. Nice pic .

Nursing color red? I thought it's like a rainbow, many colors.

I love purple color, I love green trees, and I love blue seas.

You are right in saying that nurses come in a rainbow of fleshly colors, but the true blue thread of our existence is in "The Blood" we all share, and that blood is RED.

One of my favorite songs is: It's not easy being GREEN! Well, sometimes it's not easy being RED either, because the RED blood flowing through my veins means I am ALIVE, and that's what's difficult to swallow some days. :rotfl:

Like you Jayna...I too love the beauty of every color Mother Nature expresses herself with each Season...day in day out! I like your pic, too. :kiss

[live4today, RN]

Originally posted by Jenny P

Lots of interesting comments here; I was not impressed with the original posters' reasons for nursing to "no longer be a white woman's job" as though white women were: 1) the ONLY ones who do this job; and 2) nursing is a menial job!

My feelings are that nursing is highly complex and is becoming even more skilled every year! I welcome EVERYONE who can do it; no matter what color or creed they are as long as they are able to give highly skilled quality care to the sick person lying in that bed and emotional support to the family. Today our patients are so much sicker than they were 10 years ago, they are older, require more teaching in a shorter length of time, and our job at the bedside is much more difficult than we could have imagined it would ever be. Add to that the problems in nursing (short staffing, poor pay, job dissatisfation, etc.)-- why we should thnk our lucky stars that WE are still here doing this job and that minorities are also interested in doing it too!

If this thread is offensive to anyone; it does not need to be read by them. We all know how to pick and choose the topics here. Maybe some of the nay-sayers are not white women and that may be why they are offended-- I ask your forgiveness and tolerance and a more gentle handling of the direction of the thread.

Thank you.

Jenny P

DITTO, JENNY P! Very well said! :kiss

[jevans]

Cheerfuldoer

I so do agree with you. Nursing is a profession that should be valued.

I think what worries me the most is considering we are supposed to be a caring profession, some are so intolerant to other nurses.

We are each entitle to opinions but should really give some thought to where we express them:rolleyes:

Best wishes

j:kiss

[Figaro's Mom]

"I'm saddened to see some people are still "sick" to death about any topic that has any hint of "race" to it...just because you've never had to face racism doesn't means that it doesn't exist..."

Huh? Are you implying that because people are sick of talking about it, that they've never had to confront or deal with it?

If I remember correctly, Rusty (for example) is a minority (as am I), has probably had to deal with it sometime in his life (as have I), and is probably sick of dealing with it when there are MANY MORE pressing matters nurses have to deal with (as am I!). It looks like a good number of the ones most "sick" of talking about it (on this thread anyway) are the ones who would be most directly affected by it (the minorities). I don't see that as sticking your head in the sand; I see it as beating a dead horse when folks would like to move on to more pressing things.

It sounds to me like the woman who originally made this comment feels threatened, which makes no sense to me. I would think in the midst of a nursing shortage, ANY competent compassionate nurse, regardless of where they're from or what they look like, would be welcomed to work side-by-side!

[Gomer]

Sorry, I didn't mean to cause such a brouhaha. And I'm even sorrier that some of you took this as a race issue.

What I understood the conversation to mean was that nursing, was one of the two "acceptable" professions that an American women could enter (along with teaching) and made up mostly of white women. And that now (or in the last 20-30 years) all women (regardless of skin color) have more choices. Because of the amount of choices we now have the numbers of women entering the nursing profession have lessened. So, who does this leave to fill the void?

Sorry, again, but that's all was asking. Next time I'll take a nap before posting...sometimes these 12-hr shifts are killers.

[SKM-NURSIEPOOH, BSN, RN]

originally posted by figaro's mom

"i'm saddened to see some people are still "sick" to death about any topic that has any hint of "race" to it...just because you've never had to face racism doesn't means that it doesn't exist..."

huh? are you implying that because people are sick of talking about it, that they've never had to confront or deal with it?

if i remember correctly, rusty (for example) is a minority (as am i), has probably had to deal with it sometime in his life (as have i), and is probably sick of dealing with it when there are many more pressing matters nurses have to deal with (as am i!). it looks like a good number of the ones most "sick" of talking about it (on this thread anyway) are the ones who would be most directly affected by it (the minorities). i don't see that as sticking your head in the sand; i see it as beating a dead horse when folks would like to move on to more pressing things.

it sounds to me like the woman who originally made this comment feels threatened, which makes no sense to me. i would think in the midst of a nursing shortage, any competent compassionate nurse, regardless of where they're from or what they look like, would be welcomed to work side-by-side!

...or dismissive remarks that could have been more sensitively given...it feels like being censored. i believe that folks here are mature enough to discuss the topic of racism with constructive ideas on how to handle it in the work environment. there are many newbie's out there having had no prior racial experience until they've started as a graduate nurse...perhaps they might wish for guidance or something (just for example). that's one reason not to stifle such discussions.

again, i stated that this thread wasn't about racism, nor was it inflammatory....some individuals read the title & tried to make it out to be so....i merely spoke-out for those individuals whom are being slammed by talking about or venting about some of their racial experiences on other threads. this thread wasn't one of racism...period. and to respond to my feeling threatened...i'm just sad & disappointed on how some people in this noble profession can be so narrow minded & want to stop others who want to vent about racism & how it affects them on their nursing jobs (& i don't need to point out who...they know who they are). yes there are a lot of other issues to discuss...no one's stopping them either...just don't try to stop some positive or constructive discussion on a matter that obviously affects many!!!

again, as others have suggested...if you're "tired already" of these types of threads.....then don't participate or ignore them & leave those of us who want to civily discuss them alone to do so!

no disrespect to you figaro's mom:blushkiss...i"m just restating my original message on the matter - thanks.