So I'm in the car with my fiance and future in-laws...somehow the topic of shall we say "cleaning patients up" came up. My soon to be mother-in-law looks shocked when I reply that I do this every night at work, as she replies, "You have to clean patients at work?? Where my mom lives, only the aides do and those girls work really hard! They should get paid more than the nurses. All nurses ever do is give meds."
WOAH. What??? Like I get aides do a lot of dirty work and I respect them for all they do but what?? How about the education nurses receive and the critical thinking we need to incorporate into "just giving meds." UGH I am beyond frustrated. I didn't even respond to her, mostly because I was in shock that that statement came out of her mouth knowing that her future daughter-in-law is a nurse...but now that it has been a few hours since, I wish I could have set her straight.:grn:
What are you thoughts? How would you have responded?
RNperdiem, RN
4,592 Posts
I would be tempted to just smile and smile and say "yes, and they pay me really well to hand out those pills".
Forget about trying to educate her; it probably wouldn't work anyway.
If you don't lose your composure you win. Maybe MIL was trying to rattle you to see how you would react.