Nursing Stereotypes and a Dumb Society

[abbaking]

I have noticed a few nursing stereotypes lately from patients, visitors and even my own friends (some of then are also nurses). Its very annoying

Stereotypes include:

1. A nurse is a nurse is a nurse

2. Angel's of mercy

3. Naughty Nurse (Please, my fellow sisters - FIGHT THIS ONE - This is the worst, in my opinion)

4. Un-educated, misinformed handmaiden

5. All purpose hospital slave

6. Men in nursing are all gay

Perhaps I never paid much attention, but recently I have noticed alot of this. We, as a profession, need some realistic PR.

I went out for coffee with a friend of mine. I was describing my hectic shift with post-op's, documentation and new admits. In all a very busy and routine shift. My friend works in retail. No matter how much I told her of the hard physical, mental and emotional labor involved - she seemed to downplay my job. "It can't be that hard - You work night shift, all the patients are asleep", "Two patients in ICU is easy- what are you complaining for", or "All you have to do is follow what the doctor says and it will be fine".

Makes me mad!!!

Just my

[SWS RN, ASN, RN]

Just finished posting about a similar topic-ie night shift!

Read the "what do you do on night shift" in the Nursing and Humor section. You will love it!

[firstyearstudent]

I think the public's idea of what a nurse does is what an aid typically does (bed baths, blankets, etc.).

[sunnycalifRN]

Yes, you're so right that the general public has a very stereotyped view of nurses. Either we're largely invisible, e.g., House and Grey's Anatomy . . . where the docs do everything and there is only one nurse in the hospital (who brings the crash cart). OR, we're insane . . e.g., Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Don't even worry about it . . . you can come here and vent all you want . . . we know what we do!!!

[mad-mary]

My patients and families think I am a glorified pillow fluffer.

[labordude, BSN, RN]

I'm a NICU nurse and I've been asked if I just hold and rock the babies all night long.

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

We have the exact opposite problem in Emergency - people couldn't give two hoots less about the physician, they only ever want to see the nurse!

* "Can't you just order my tests yourself?"

* "What do you mean you can't give me pain medicine?"

* "But the triage nurse already examined me, what do I have to wait for the doctor for?"

[JordiesMomRN]

I tend not to even discuss "work matters" with my friends, unless they are a nurse. Some people honestly think that we are just doing what a doctor tells us to do. Nobody truly understands what we go through sometimes. If I have had a particulaly bad or emotional day, I call a nurse buddy. I have also gotten the comment "You're only taking care of two patients, how busy can you be" ughhhhh!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

my mother told me to go into nursing because all nurses do is sit at the nurse's station and drink coffee and flirt with the doctors while the aides do all the work. not that i believed her -- i went into nursing despite her advice rather than because of it. even after dad was in icu for ten days after an mi -- and mom spent the entire ten days at the hospital except for the one time she left to go take a shower so that i would have the opportunity to give permission for dad to be intubated "so he could be mad at you instead of me" -- mom still had no idea what nurses do. or respiratory therapists or physical therapists or -- god help her -- the doctors.

when i, a nurse, went to dad's cardiologist and described symptoms of increasing confusion, decreasing o2 sats, air hunger and cyanosis and said i thought it was time for him to be intubated, mom insisted that the doctor "just knew when it was time." someone knew when, but the doctor didn't know until he was told. when the nurses noticed he was bucking the vent and having runs of vt, they called the cardiologist and got orders for paralytics. i explained the situation to mom. did she credit the nurses with having the knowledge, education and experience to know what was needed? no, she credited the doctor for having such a good idea. and he must have been really good at explaining it to me so i could explain it to her. she was very proud of my sister, whose doctrate in nursing allows her to sit in a corner office, wear gucci and carry vouitton to work and command a salary sufficient for quite an affluent life style but who doesn't understand the correlation between lasix and vt due to potassium depletion.

if even a woman who gave birth to two nurses and spent 10 days in an icu watching them take care of her husband has no idea what nurses do, how could i expect the general public to get it? unfortunately, "nurse jackie" doesn't portray a particularly positive image of nursing, either, what with the pill popping and the pharmacist shagging. and i quit on hawthorne when i realized that jada pinkett smith was playing a nurse manager (or is it don?) who has engineered all of these heroic saves at the bedside while her bedside staff did --- what exactly? why not follow a heroic float nurse who can legitimately work in ob one day and er the next? or a travel nurse who can legitimately work in reno one season and nyc the next?

[leslie :-D]

my husband used to 'teasingly' tell others i was going to be a registered a$$-wiper (when i was in school).

when i was studying for nclex, i made him read the book i was practicing from.

it blew him away, with him exclaiming, "you have to know all THIS???"

ever since then, he tells others that nurses are like dr's, in that they have to know sooooo much.

i remind him that's not quite true, but still, yes, we do have to know a lot!

leslie

[Info(RN)matics]

if even a woman who gave birth to two nurses and spent 10 days in an icu watching them take care of her husband has no idea what nurses do, how could i expect the general public to get it?

sigh!

it just seems like something we have to learn to live with!

can any amount of excellent pr repair nurses' public image?

sadly, you have to be one to know one.

[Mukfay]

The thing that's always confused me about this is that nurses are consistently rated as some of the most trusted professionals in the world. Trusted to do what? If the perception is one of simpleton, what is there to trust?