Just have to share- pt's spouse's thoughts on nursing.

[suanna]

I had a criticaly ill patient fresh out of OR the other day. IABP, multiple pressors, ectopy, bleeding, pacer.... After an hour or two I got him settled enough to have his wife in. After reviewing his clinical status, and reassuring her that I had seen many patients as sick as her husband do just fine in my 25 years in critical care, I was going over visiting policy I mentioned no-one under age 16yrs on the unit. They had a boy, (looked 12yrs) that she said was considering nursing as a career. I advised her to have him explore the opportunities in the area, talk to some nurses before deciding on that career path in that nursing isn't for everyone. Her response was that "they were hoping after he finished his nursing degree, HE WOULD RETURN TO SCHOOL AND COMPLETE A DEGREE IN SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT AND CHALLENGING!!!!????" (My, didn't I feel proud to be her husbands nurse and to have used my vast skills to drag him back from the brink of death. Can you imagine what I could do if I had a real education in something worthwhile?) WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT? I just told her she could only hope for the best!

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

Chalk it up to ill-educated perception. With her luck, her son will pursue basket-weaving.

With her luck, her son will go into nursing and like the rest of us.......develop a case of low level paranoid schitzophrenia with underlying anxiety disorder. And she will spend hours each day listening to his stories about how he had one pt code while an admit arrived and no one helped only to be told he forgot to sign an hourly rounding sheet on Pt. #10.

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

with a mother like that , what hope does her son have ??!!

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

I'm not quibbling with you - kudos to Mr. Borlaug!

But there are, in fact, things that are both more difficult and more important than being a physician too.

Like an agricultural engineer - he/she designs ag equipment that helps with harvesting and planting food.

Plant scientist - developing new plant genetics and productivity to help us feed the world.

A farmer - who feeds the world.

We could name many things that are challenging and important.

I just don't think this is the issue here.

Her son wants to be a nurse - her interpretation is nursing isn't important or challenging. Nursing is important and it is challenging. The mom doesn't appear to realize that the nurse she is speaking to is helping to save her husband's life and that her son's life choice is an honorable one.

That is completely different than what you are saying.

steph

EXACTLY!!!

[RNperdiem, RN]

Sometimes being a nurse is like being a parent.

You are important and needed and you know it.

But your status does not match your importance and you get taken for granted most of the time.

[livinthedreamRN]

I think what everyone does is important. If a person is being productive and contributing to our nation's work force, and providing for themselves or for their family, what they do is very important. I think nursing is one of the most difficult and unappreciated professions for many different reasons.

What is bothersome however is the self important people that force their often unimportant opinions on the rest of us.

[Zookeeper3]

My gosh how some get OT... geeze....to the OP.... crap... "you're just a nurse" and surely we don't want junior going out and saving lives...

Feeling you pain, these idiots, simply are idiots are do NOT deserve your irritation, and do not allow yourself to be demeaned.

As a wise poster said.... "you can't fix stupid". there is nothing more to say.

I wish to say ignore the ignorance of others that hijack threads, but we really know this and can't help ourselves anyway. We're all guilty.

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

The boy's mother is stupid, and he will have to figure out his parent's shortcomings later in life. Every one does at some point; it's part of growing up. Hopefully he gets better guidance from someone else.

[Meraki]

All I can do as feel sorry for the son to have to be raised by such a rude, ignorant, unfeeling person.

"you can't fix stupid". there is nothing more to say. .

with a mother like that , what hope does her son have ??!!

So based on sentence she said that had a poor choice of words - at a time when her husband is in critical condition you have decided her character and her son's future??

I mean based on your one very judgmental sentences I could make sweeping assumptions about your characters and the futures of your children...

[morphed]

You should have said, "Oh, I don't know. I think keeping people alive is pretty worthwhile but others may disagree. It's all a matter of personal priorities I guess." Lol

[TDCHIM]

So based on sentence she said that had a poor choice of words - at a time when her husband is in critical condition you have decided her character and her son's future??

I mean based on your one very judgmental sentences I could make sweeping assumptions about your characters and the futures of your children...

I have to disagree. As I see it, the speaker didn't simply order or choose her words poorly; she betrayed an attitude of condescension and ignorance regarding the work and educational challenges facing the health care providers who have the largest day-to-day impact on a patient's well-being. I've been where that woman was, in the ICU, next to a fiancee who wasn't expected to live, and I didn't make any rude remarks about the academic rigor of the nurses' school programs or the difficulty or importance of the work they were doing to help save his life. I certainly believe in giving those who have just met with a terrible shock some leeway with what they say, because grief, fear, anger, shock, or some combination thereof can bring uncharacteristically ugly or bizarre statements out of people's mouths. However, her statement still seems pretty rude and uninformed.

Obviously, none of us knows what was really going on inside that woman's head, but for what it's worth, that's my opinion.

[sharpeiluv]

Mr. Borlaug created a hybrid rice that saved a billion people from starvation. I had no intention of starting a nurse vs doctor thing here, just acknowledging that there are, in fact, things to do that are both more difficult and more important than nursing.

How is it that someone can call different ways of impacting human survival unequal? One would be rendered somewhat meaningless without the other. I think that this comment reflects ignorance about what nurses do to impact not only survival but the quality of life for patients worldwide on a daily basis.

[Meraki]

However, her statement still seems pretty rude and uninformed.

Obviously, none of us knows what was really going on inside that woman's head, but for what it's worth, that's my opinion.

I don't disagree that that her statement may have sounded rude and uninformed. I just don't believe that based on one sentence, 2 words that were 'rude' that can can determine that her child's future is in jeopardy and that she is an ignorant, rude stupid and unfeeling person. She wasn't attacking the nurse she was talking about what she wants for her son, based on her own understanding of various professions. Maybe she wants him to be the president and her her mind that is a more important and challenging job than being a nurse. She may be misinformed about nursing however I don't think that in and of itself makes her a horrible person and ruins her child.

In my world good people can say dumb things. Apparently on this board I'm alone in my world. Thankfully in my real world people feel the same way as me.