Higher Calling

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Why is it that nurses are informed from the beginning of their education and throughout their careers that nursing is a higher calling? Is this being taught to management and administrators as well? Rhetorical questions, as a male, in a female-dominated profession, and coming from the corporate world it is rather disingenuous and would never be tolerated in "male" dominated professions. I'm expected to take care of you or your family, and in return I get to work in sub-par environments with sub-par compensation. Why am I nothing more than a liability on the balance sheet?

when the old nurses leave..

nursing didn't really start to be sucky until the new nurses came along, if you think about it. It was pretty sweet back when *we* had control of it.

Hahahhahahahahaha!!!!

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I find it ironic that there are many threads on here lamenting the poor working conditions, under staffing and compressed wages, ie lucky to get a 2% raise and now everyone is attacking him for stating the same.

No irony, because no one is attacking him for talking about working conditions that he doesn't like. No one is/was attacking him, period. People agreed and disagreed with parts of what he said; disagreement, respectfully stated, isn't an attack.

So while I agree that his tone was not the best, I think there is truth to what he is saying.

Tone? Language used in a dismissive and insulting manner. Very hard to get TO what someone is saying when they start out with belittling those who responded with a difference of OPINION on the subject. Difference in opinion or position with one person meant that person was under-educated and not well-experienced, therefore had an invalid POV. With me, he was dismissive of a "community college" ADN because he had gone to "one of the best nursing programs in the country" (so without knowing a single thing about my schooling, it was inferior to his---very arrogant). And then my favorite part, that I "probably have a reading disability" because I did not see his POV as one that we all share. Dismissive, insulting, rude.

Let's not forget the post about how we are all in the same level of denial and subserviance that a domestic violence victim lives in. Offensive and insulting to a variety of parties.

When one comes into a conversation with statements that are insulting and offensive to even the casual observer....he cannot claim innocence when he is called on the carpet for it. So...."tone"? No. Actual statements made is what hung him out, and deservedly so.

As for the point of his ranting thread, YES, we all understand that there are less-than-ideal workplaces, and those that are better than average. Some make wages that can and should be improved upon, others are quite satisfied with their compensation. Some people were sold (and happily bought) a bill of goods that nursing is a "higher calling", and others didn't and don't. How should that all be handled? By voting with our feet. Unions can help in some cases, hurt in others. If someone is dissatisfied with his/her working arrangement sometimes it's an easy fix and sometimes darned near impossible. But in the end, no one held a gun to the OP's head and forced him (or anyone else!) to go to nursing school or seek employment as a nurse. There's so many who DO want to do this that there's very little need to bend over backwards and upside down to keep someone in the profession who doesn't want to be there.

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I think I'd like to frame this for my office wall:

Suggesting that someone may have a learning disability because they've disagreed with you IS negative, and if you don't get that, perhaps you are the one with the comprehension problem.

I'm not quite sure what those "horrible working conditions" you refer to over and over would be. We're indoors with heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer and a roof to keep the rain off. That beats any number of professions for working conditions. The compensation has afforded me a nice life over the years. No, I can't have EVERYTHING I want, but I can have a comfortable home, a reliable car, nice vacations, steak for dinner every now and again and the odd designer handbag. I'm not living in a mansion, but if money were that important to me, I probably would have chosen another career. I have a career that's interesting, challenging and flexible.

Ebola aside, the fact that nurses drop out after two years is less a condemnation of nursing than it is a commentary on the lack of congruence with their expectations and the reality of nursing. People drop out of social work, the law and education after two years as well when their expectations aren't met.

I find it offensive that you would compare enjoying my career with defense of an abusive partner. Clearly, you have no idea.

But if you've had the last word and you're gone now, that's OK.

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I think I'd like to frame this for my office wall:

I know, right? Ruby Vee is the bee's knees!

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There you go.

OP,

I don't think what most think they're being called to is the job they're signing up for however this far into my career it's whatever that calling stuff is that makes it possible to get through some days.

My SO has some pretty big job stress, everyday he is much more at risk of making a huge financial or safety mistake than I am. But no matter what he has to deal with, I still had the client yesterday that needed Hospice right now but didn't qualify, my client was dying and I'm advocating all day trying to keep his family from having him die on them without the proper help. (Complicated). When I come home and just want to talk about make up it's because my client died, not that she was just pissed that the $$$ Italian tile isn't the perfect shade of taupe. I'm preaching to the choir here but I don't know if those of us who wouldn't give it up even if we could is a calling or if we're just from a different planet but it's definitely *something*.

Also, I'm neither abused nor poorly paid and if I didn't want to do what I'm doing now, I'd have options.

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Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.

From the Burgh, transplanted to the South, and not sure what schools still teach this "higher calling" nonsense. I got 'called' to this

profession by the lack of funds in my bank account.

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I actually did have an instructor tell us day one that if we didn't feel called to nursing that we wouldn't make it through school. I tried to contain my eye roll but I still had to discreetly pick up my eyeballs up off the floor.

But this is coming from someone that wanted to be a nurse since she was a little girl, so... I guess people tend to see their way as the best way.

I fell into it, like many others, because of an empty bank account. I now feel it's a perfect career for me. Still, if I could make half the money just staying home, I would. I am definitely not a workaholic.

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Specializes in critical care.
I actually did have an instructor tell us day one that if we didn't feel called to nursing that we wouldn't make it through school. I tried to contain my eye roll but I still had to discreetly pick up my eyeballs up off the floor.

Man, that bugs me! Plenty of people get into nursing simply for a paycheck and there is no reason to believe they lack longevity or awesomeness.

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Specializes in Emergency Department Nursing.

I'm a nurse in Pennsylvania and I was told many times by my instructors that nursing was a "higher calling" and that those of us who were there for a paycheck wouldn't make it through nursing school, or that we'd fail at our boards or that we'd quit within the first year of professional nursing. I work in an ED and some of my colleagues still refer to what we,(nurses), do as a higher calling.

Incidentally I also work as a clinical analyst in my organization and not one of my I.T. coworkers refer to what they do as a higher calling and when they round with me on the floors and hear some of the staff say stuff like that, my I.T. coworkers give me what I call their, *****! faces.

I just shrug and walk on. Ixcel, I agree with you. I've been told by some of my Nurse co workers that people like me, aka the guy in it for the check, doesn't deserve to be a RN.

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Specializes in hospice.

People like that are so disingenuous. We're ALL in our jobs for the paycheck! Liking our work and finding it fulfilling is a nice side benefit, but they're lying if they say they'd still show up for work if they stopped being paid.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

Uh huh, I was called into nursing because I thought it was a bad idea to fall off of another roof.

Funny that the superior education that the OP boasts about didn't prepare him for clear written communication and included some ancient and unhelpful philosophies (like nursing is a "calling" more than a profession).

Men in nursing simply do not need posts like this...

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