As a patient family member (who is also a nurse), I recently encountered an interesting situation. The nurse corrected the assumption she was the doctor by saying "Oh I'm not the doctor, I don't want that much responsibility"! Attitudes such as this one perpetuate the subservient mentality of many nurses today. We MUST start acting like the educated, experienced, capable professionals we are!
Recently my husband's grandmother was a patient in the ICU. I am frequently used as the medical translator in the family, this time wasn't any different. I had the opportunity to make a couple of observations I would like to share with you.
Before I continue, let me tell you a little about myself. I have worked in many areas of the hospital. L&D (as and OB tech), Ortho/Neuron MedSurg, ER, Trauma ICU, CVICU (all as an RN). I recently started graduate school in hopes of gaining more autonomy and advancing my education. I LOVE being a nurse. I love the way it blends science and compassion. I am PROUD to be a nurse. Except for one thing.....
I have always had a problem with the societal perception of nurses. I love the show Grey's Anatomy (despite its medical inaccuracies), but can't help noticing that there are no nurses in major roles. I see nurses as a whole represented as coffee-fetching secretaries. My family even says to me "I know you're not the doctor, but what do you think about this....?".
This perception, of course, does not jive with the fact that many nurses have a Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Science, multiple additional certifications, years of experience, and have saved multiple patients from incompetent physicians.
This week, while observing the nurse caring for my family member, I realized a MAJOR part of the problem with the way nurses are perceived. My confused family member mistakenly called the nurse DOCTOR. The nurse replied...
"Oh, I'm not the doctor I couldn't handle that much responsibility".
EXCUSE ME?! Throughout our visit, she repeatedly dodged conversations, referred the family to the doctor with any questions, and generally made me feel ashamed about our profession. I realized that I have encountered that same attitude so many times in my fellow nurses. But WHY?? I once heard a nurse tell a physician who offered to help her clean a patient...
"Oh I'm sure you have more important things to do! This isn't your job."
This is just as much the physician's patient as yours, and if the job needs to be done for the good of the patient, why would you assume this meek, butt wiping maid position to the ALMIGHTY DOCTOR??
Let me start out by saying that I know all nurses are not created equally, but I think this is a mindset bred into many nurses from the beginning of our education. Instead of thinking "I am an educated, experienced caregiver who is more than capable of answering your questions. I shoulder a TON of responsibility every day I come to work." We are taught this...
"The doctor is GOD. The doctor is KING. You are JUST THE NURSE."
This thought is reaffirmed every time we allow a colleague's ideas to be dismissed by a rude attending, or when we don't speak up in family conferences, or when we say things like "Oh I'm not the doctor, that's too much responsibility". This inaccurate perception of the "pecking order" is not only offensive, but unsafe. This mindset is what makes you second guess yourself before calling that mean physician to report a critical value, or bring up an important concern. NO MORE!!!
I'm calling all nurses to WAKE UP!
Empower yourselves through education and experiences. Realize that you are not the secretary, the butt wiper, or the maid. You are smart, you are important, you are educated! Quit it with the subservient attitude and be the powerful PROFESSIONALS you should be. We are separate professionals, MDs are not your boss, they are your colleagues. Quit demeaning our own profession with your engrained lowly mindsets.
OK, rant over... feel free to comment, tell me what you think!!!
I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt. In the classroom they preached that I was a professional clinician with a scope of practice. What I observed in clinical was the opposite. The nurses were expected to give the meds, write the notes and shut up. Of course this varied by hospital, unit, and nurse-physician relationship.
Specializes in ED, Telemetry,Hospice, ICU, Supervisor.
My experience is mostly in Telemetry, ER, and ICU.
Form my experience, if you look like your doing maid work or secretary work, then the pts and their families will view you as such. IN MY FACILITY WE FIRED ALL OUR CNAS, and only have 1 housekeeper at night. So guess who is wiping poop and mopping your room every night. Yes, that is right, in my facility we mop one of our rooms assigned to us.
I do not blame the pts for looking at us like the help, that is because I am literally doing maid work every night. Yes I also have a pt on Nimbex on Rotoprone or Hypothermia Protocol, or severe sepsis with 3 pressors.
But what pt/family focuses on is what they see. They cannot see the pages of knowledge flying thorough my head or the gears cranking away for an answer to this problem. I mean what do most RNs in ICU do when there's a problem that needs solving, they keep their calm, talk in a calm even voice, and analyze the data by starring/listening/feeling something. It literally looks like we are standing still not doing anything.
Get away from bedside, and get into something where I can walk into work in some nice dress pants/shoues/shirt and white lab coat. I would love to sit down and talk to pts and write prescriptions, and not have to touch any more C.Diff poop. I bet you anything, pts wont see you as the maid anymore.
Dont act like a maid and you wont be seen as a maid.
My experience is mostly in Telemetry, ER, and ICU.
Form my experience, if you look like your doing maid work or secretary work, then the pts and their families will view you as such. IN MY FACILITY WE FIRED ALL OUR CNAS, and only have 1 housekeeper at night. So guess who is wiping poop and mopping your room every night. Yes, that is right, in my facility we mop one of our rooms assigned to us.
I do not blame the pts for looking at us like the help, that is because I am literally doing maid work every night. Yes I also have a pt on Nimbex on Rotoprone or Hypothermia Protocol, or severe sepsis with 3 pressors.
But what pt/family focuses on is what they see. They cannot see the pages of knowledge flying thorough my head or the gears cranking away for an answer to this problem. I mean what do most RNs in ICU do when there's a problem that needs solving, they keep their calm, talk in a calm even voice, and analyze the data by starring/listening/feeling something. It literally looks like we are standing still not doing anything.
Get away from bedside, and get into something where I can walk into work in some nice dress pants/shoues/shirt and white lab coat. I would love to sit down and talk to pts and write prescriptions, and not have to touch any more C.Diff poop. I bet you anything, pts wont see you as the maid anymore.
Dont act like a maid and you wont be seen as a maid.
Word. Same thing with my critical care unit. We rarely have CNAs on most days and our housekeepers are no where in sight.
I literally think to myself at 3am as I am cleaning a toilet or mopping a spill, why did I go to school for 4.5 years to do this? Who cares about how much I am paid...I am freaking mopping a damn floor when I have critical patients.
I'm grateful that the hospitals I've worked at have enough supportive/ancillary staff that nurses can actually be nurses and not have to mop floors. Heck some nurses barely, if ever, help with cleaning and turning their patients...but that's another story.
Specializes in Cardiac rehab, med-tele, psych, research.
I find the argument that nurses have about not wanting the responsibility of a doctor to be based on fear. Responsibilities are given to those who prove themselves qualified. A nurse is fully capable, if not more capable of completing the rigors of med school if they were inclined to. I'm sure any nurse who gained the title of MD after completing med school would be qualified to handle the responsibility that doctors have.
Specializes in ED, Telemetry,Hospice, ICU, Supervisor.
I'm grateful that the hospitals I've worked at have enough supportive/ancillary staff that nurses can actually be nurses and not have to mop floors. Heck some nurses barely, if ever, help with cleaning and turning their patients...but that's another story.
I hear about properly staffed facilities, last time my facility had CNAS was 3 years ago. Makes me want to cry.
Are u seriously this upset? Get over yourself. Leave it up to a wild haired nurse to take offense to a comment that is, well, ummm, politically correct. I never hear any other "professional" complain about feeling inferior to someone who higher on the ladder than them. My job is a nurse, it does not define me. Doctors are also over-worked and do not deserve to be bashed, i.e, "I am a nurse, I work for a living" Really????? Comments like this from a "professional" hahaha, how pathetic. Nothing infuriates me more than a know-it all nurse who feels the need to prove herself against those "stupid" Residents, "stupid"NP, etc. Oh, and same goes for LPN's, CNA's - you are not the nurse, just as the nurse is not the doctor. Pretty simple.
I'm not upset at all. I sustained a good relationship with the nurse throughout the stay. I don't need to "get over myself". I just think that nurses should give themselves a little more credit. It has NOTHING to do with feeling inferior, it has to do with not taking credit for the knowledge you have.
The response "I'm a nurse, I work for a living" has been hashed out. I'm sure it was meant as jest only, not as a serious statement. Additionally, I didn't call anyone stupid in my post. Your response seems pretty reactive... slow down and think about the actual issue.
I will agree with you on one thing though... my hair is pretty wild.
To be an RN is not just a "2 year degree". You have many pre req's before. I am 50, have owned my own Med Spa for 7 years and want to care for my patients myself so off to school I go. As I have looked further I will need to be in school for at least 5 years to reach NP or PhD. Mind you I already have about 10 years of college which takes off a little bit of time. My son is going to be a doctor, 8 years for an MD with no college. Sooooo where is the difference in the amount of time? We all have to do clinals while MD are residency.
I go to many many classes all over the US and even get more certificates in my field, esthetics, and have plans for my new degree when I receive it. It is the same amount of time, should be higher respect and more pay.
My grandfather was a general surgeon for 43yrs and He will tell anyone that he couldn't have done his job without his team of OR nurses.....He has a great respect for the nursing field and doesn't view them as a less educated lower class worker. Now this is really a old school view of how Drs view the nurses. I've had plenty of Drs talk down to me because they had the M.D. at the end of their name! My favor part of this is turning around and making the Dr look like a stupid ass when I show him that I was right and he was wrong....they tend to get super upset! I have only done this when I was a friend/relative of the Patient and not in a work setting.
You are NOT a physician nor in any way qualified to be one. Most nurses couldn't have gotten in to medical school to save their lives; nursing school and med school are two entirely different ball games, no matter how "advanced" the nurse's education. Let it go - you aren't a doctor and most likely never could be. That's why you became a nurse.
You are NOT a physician nor in any way qualified to be one. Most nurses couldn't have gotten in to medical school to save their lives; nursing school and med school are two entirely different ball games, no matter how "advanced" the nurse's education. Let it go - you aren't a doctor and most likely never could be. That's why you became a nurse.
Is your post addressed to a particular poster or is it just a general statement?
Gentleman_nurse, MSN
318 Posts
I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt. In the classroom they preached that I was a professional clinician with a scope of practice. What I observed in clinical was the opposite. The nurses were expected to give the meds, write the notes and shut up. Of course this varied by hospital, unit, and nurse-physician relationship.