What is the most annoying stereotype that you have directly come across. We all know the naughty nurse one. I'm talking more along the lines of, what have you personally had to deal with?
Mine: Well, if you were smarter wouldn't you have become a doctor?
Well, I didn't become a doctor because I understand that they have to devote more time
and effort into a job than I would like to. To me, a job is a job. Life is what happens when
you're NOT at work. I don't want my whole life to revolve around work. I would like to take
vacations and not be on call, have kids and actually RAISE them. THAT, you idiot, is why
Friends and family asking me for advice about cold/flu symptoms, minor wounds, etc. I'm a critical care nurse, I could give a s*!# about your runny noses or cuts & bruises.
The most annoying to me...as a nurse I can supposedly go anywhere and immediately get a job in any part of the country in any area of nursing of my choosing. Bored? I can switch specialties in the blink of an eye. Um...no. Not in this economy, dear heart.
I may be the only one who does not have a problem with the naughty nurse issue. It's just not that big a deal to me anymore. It's just fantasy/role playing. You see the same with the naughty cop outfits, naughty librarian, naughty secretary...the list goes on. I don't hear about police officers, librarians, or secretaries getting all up in arms about it (maybe they do, I've just never heard of it). As long as no one is believing this to be reality, I'm cool with it. Now if a patient were to proposition me or make a comment about where is his sponge bath (and we both know what kind of sponge bath he means), THEN I would be upset. But people dressing up or tv/movie protrayals of the naughty nurse just don't bother me anymore.
No you're not the only one who doesn't have a problem with the sexy nurse thing. I *gasp* have a tattoo of a sexy nurse. Please, I am a real live woman not a *******' saint. I do have a fun life outside of nursing.
has no one resented the "compassionate, angelic" stereotype that comes with nsg?
i.hate.it.
no, dear pt, i am not especially pleased that you haven't given me a moment's peace for the entire12 hrs.
no, dear pt, i am not here to mediate for your loud, obnoxious parents/others.
no, dear pt, i am not going to ask the dr for a 300% increase in your dilaudid. hell, i'm lucky i can understand what you're demanding me to do...you're slurring, with incomplete sentences...hey you, wake up!
i repeat, i am NOT compassionate or angelic, and have little to no mercy for you.
you have sucked the life out of me today and i want to crawl home.
however, you won't have a clue that i'd love to wring your neck right about now.
I'm another nurse who's not the slightest bit bothered by the "naughty nurse" thing -- only wish I still had the body to pull that off as a Halloween costume myself :)
However, like several others here, I am also offended by the assumption that as a nurse I can have any job I want, anywhere I want. Sure wish it had been true 2.5 years ago when I graduated from nursing school. Instead, it took me 5 months of applying to every single new grad position within a 100 hundred mile radius of where I lived to get 3 interviews which finally led to 1 job. While I was still looking, one of the other moms at my son's elementary school actually said to me that if I couldn't find a job as a nurse, it must just be that I didn't want to work!!!!!!! Her niece had gotten a job as a new grad the year before, and that proved that anyone who wanted a job as a nurse could get one! She actually asked me if I had tried Kaiser yet. Um, gee, no, it never occurred to me to apply to the BIGGEST EMPLOYER OF NURSES IN MY AREA!!! Seemed to not believe me when I told her I had applied to literally hundreds of jobs at Kaiser and every other facility that employs nurses in our area. I had to fight a very strong urge to punch her (well, ok, I would never do that, but I found the thought somehow satisfying). I had to turn my back and walk away so as not to do something even more rude.
At least now, with the economy in the dumps for so long, people are starting to at least believe me when I tell them it's not that easy to get a job as a nurse. More people know someone whose sister's boyfriend's cousin couldn't get a job as a new grad. When I graduated, I and my other fellow new grads got looked at like we had two heads when we tried to tell anyone how hard it was to find a job.
Agreed. I am a recent grad, who is thankfully employed. When I was searching though, everyone I came across would remark, "its easy for nurses to find work. No problem." Yeah, right!
And trying to explain was futile, because the general public continues to have the perception that nurses can find all sorts of work.
I graduate in May and my mother-in-law assumes I will be working by June 1. She's even asked, several times, if they need to change their summer vacation plans in case I have to work and need a sitter. I've repeatedly told her "no" b/c I will not even have my license by her scheduled vacation week & the largest hospital here will not even talk with you until you are licensed.Still, she continues to think I'll will graduate one day and have a job the next. I've given up on trying to convince her otherwise and I try to not talk with her about it at all b/c I get so frustrated with her.
Much of the problem with the sexy/ naughty nurse stereotype stems from the manner in which nurses are portrayed in the media and advertising. People easily have a skewed impression when these images are continually reinforced. I also found myself bothered at Halloween, when these nurse costumes were everywhere. I remember having a discussion one year with a girl I knew who chose to wear such costume. (We were at a Halloween themed event), and I said, "It took me 4 years of hard work to get through nursing school, and you dress up in a skimpy outfit for 2 hours, and call yourself "nurse"."
To each his own, yes. But the whole concept irritates me. As though nurses have nothing better to offer than being eye candy...!
funny thing..... I was a "sexy nurse" in 5th grade for Halloween. Haaa!!! Eh, I think the stereotypes should be shrugged off. The smart peeps in this world know what we're about.....
I know soooo many female docs who are ****** -(oh, can't say *ISSED ?? come on, now...) but that they are confused for the nurse. They are SO offended. So I guess we're all even, then.
I know soooo many female docs who are ****** -(oh, can't say *ISSED ?? come on, now...) but that they are confused for the nurse. They are SO offended. So I guess we're all even, then.
Hmph.
Well, there was a thread here recently about a nurse annoyed that she had been confused for a patient care aide...
Back in the day, I had patients in a 4 bed ward room. Something spilled, so I grabbed a mop and started cleaning up. One fellow shot up in bed and yelled "you told me you were an RN!" I said, yes I am, and this spill needs cleaning up. He sat back and said "in the army, RNs are Captains, only corpmen mop". Maybe I should have gone the military route....
funny thing..... I was a "sexy nurse" in 5th grade for Halloween. Haaa!!! Eh, I think the stereotypes should be shrugged off. The smart peeps in this world know what we're about.....
A "sexy" costume (the specifics don't matter) ... for a 5th grader? Age 10-11? That would be a whole other thread.
Mike A. Fungin RN
457 Posts
All of the stereotypes about men in nursing.
Friends and family asking me for advice about cold/flu symptoms, minor wounds, etc. I'm a critical care nurse, I could give a s*!# about your runny noses or cuts & bruises.