Is there a way to separate the title "Nurse" away from your name?

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Specializes in ACE.

While I do enjoy being a Nurse, its just the fact that everyone introduces me as a nurse. Like when we were still able to gather pre covid I would go to parties and my friends / family would introduce me to other people saying "heres my friend/nephew, hes a nurse". and its like man I'm not trying to start a conversation here by explaining what I do for a living. It's not like other people introduce their families like hey here my son, hes a mailman. 

I also love doing other things like swimming, playing drums in a band, but the title "Nurse" will always stick to me. Even when I try to talk to other people about other stuff non work related it always ends up by them asking "how did you work during the pandemic"? 

I may be complaining too much, but this is how I feel. I take the title Nurse and everything tied to it very seriously as it has been my lifes work in my very short nursing career, but I feel like it has taken over my life in some shape or way.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

Sure, you've got a few options.

1. Don't go out with people.

2. Change careers.

3. Come up with some wildly outrageous and disgusting stories to start into right after you're introduced, (they'll never bring it up again.)

4. Realize that whomever is doing the introducing is probably just coming up with a talking point and you should focus on other stuff. Let's face it, when someone is being introduced to someone new, they rarely put that much effort into remembering things about them until they become friends. 

If it bothers you, when you're going out with friends, either introduce yourself first- with just your name or whatever you would like to be known for, or ask the friend that's doing the introducing not to start off with your career. 

You seem to enjoy finding any aspect of nursing that you can to complain about. Staff don't like you, you're worried about working overtime, you don't really want to be known as a nurse, your coworkers left during the pandemic and as a guy in nursing you are feeling singled out. What do you like about it?

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If your new acquaintance begins the conversation with your job,  it would be simple to just change the subject. " I prefer not to talk about my work. What are you drinking there?"  Many topics to switch to.

 

 

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
10 hours ago, DK123 said:

I may be complaining too much, but this is how I feel. I take the title Nurse and everything tied to it very seriously as it has been my lifes work in my very short nursing career, but I feel like it has taken over my life in some shape or way.

"Complaining too much" is relative, however, it does make for interesting threads.

By calling attention attention to ourselves, in raising debates, we feel like we're more in control. We feel as though we possess power over situations and others.

We set the scene, stir a pot, then sit back and and watch the goings-on.

And, if we're @NurseBlaq, we bring popcorn. And, we are sure we don't forget to bring the ginger ale.

To some, myself included, nursing is/was a life calling. I was a nurse 24/7 365 and felt good about it. Should a situation arise, I would be a nurse again. Although retired, my license is current.

My unsolicited advice, DK, is to embrace your position and revel within it.

That is all.

For now.

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Specializes in Emergency.

I agree that this can be frustrating but it comes from a positive place. You're friends/family seem proud of your job!

As a society we generally place a lot of weight on professions/careers. Instead of asking "what do you do for work?" it would be more interesting to ask "what are your passions?" or "what do you do for fun?".

I was getting my teeth cleaned the other day and the hygienist kept asking me questions about being a nurse: "are you scared to go to work?". I just provided basic one word answers and they got the hint.

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Specializes in ER, Pre-Op, PACU.

You can change the subject if you don’t want to talk about it. To me, being a nurse is being part of who I am, not everything, but part of me. I don’t talk all the time about nursing, but I don’t mind talking about it, talking about it to other nurses, mentoring and watching out for young nurses. I know other careers come up in conversation.....engineering, physicians, teachers, etc. Why hide your career? You can talk about it briefly and then move on to a subject you prefer to talk about.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.

I feel honored sometimes that people are so interested in learning more about what it means to be a nurse and they almost always express appreciation and say they are impressed with nurses, tell stories about how nurses have positively impacted them as patients, etc. To me it feels good to be appreciated/respected since sometimes patients aren't in the space to treat us well and we face a lot of abuse at work. Not to say my self esteem is tied up in being appreciated as a nurse, but it does feel nice. 

That said, if it bothers you, ask close friends not to introduce you that way. Say you appreciate them being impressed with you as a nurse but that you prefer not to talk about nursing outside of work. And if strangers bring it up just change the subject ?

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Specializes in ACE.
1 hour ago, lstyr said:

I agree that this can be frustrating but it comes from a positive place. You're friends/family seem proud of your job!

As a society we generally place a lot of weight on professions/careers. Instead of asking "what do you do for work?" it would be more interesting to ask "what are your passions?" or "what do you do for fun?".

I was getting my teeth cleaned the other day and the hygienist kept asking me questions about being a nurse: "are you scared to go to work?". I just provided basic one word answers and they got the hint.

thanks for the answer. yeah I feel proud but its like that is the way people introduce you. sometimes I am not really eager to talk about being a nurse or what I do at work especially when I am stressed and want to do other things. 

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Specializes in ICU.

Seems like you’re going through a lot lately in how you feel about your career, maybe time to take LOA?

(couldn’t help myself)

In all seriousness I get this. Just describe a gnarly wound while they’re in the middle of a bite of something. ?

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Not trying to be sarcastic/overly-simplistic, but have you asked your companions and your family members not to introduce you as a nurse?

I've certainly done it quite a few times, mostly when attending appointments with family members. But there's no reason you couldn't make the same request when approaching a social situation.

?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

You seem to make big deals out of little things and/or overly complicate things. If, for whatever reason, you don't like being introduced as a nurse then simply tell your friends and family who are repeat offenders to not introduce you as a nurse. If you don't want to talk about your work life, simply say "I like to forget about work when I'm off." 

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On 1/16/2021 at 11:37 PM, DK123 said:

While I do enjoy being a Nurse, its just the fact that everyone introduces me as a nurse. Like when we were still able to gather pre covid I would go to parties and my friends / family would introduce me to other people saying "heres my friend/nephew, hes a nurse". and its like man I'm not trying to start a conversation here by explaining what I do for a living. It's not like other people introduce their families like hey here my son, hes a mailman. 

I also love doing other things like swimming, playing drums in a band, but the title "Nurse" will always stick to me. Even when I try to talk to other people about other stuff non work related it always ends up by them asking "how did you work during the pandemic"? 

I may be complaining too much, but this is how I feel. I take the title Nurse and everything tied to it very seriously as it has been my lifes work in my very short nursing career, but I feel like it has taken over my life in some shape or way.

Are you ashamed of the title nurse because it has a feminine connotation to it? 

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