New name for the Nursing profession?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. A new name for "Nursing"

    • 52
      Yes, a new name will be good
    • 94
      No, I like the term "Nursing"
    • 12
      Neutral
    • 2
      None of the above

160 members have participated

The term "nursing" has lots of historical connotations associated with it. For example, it is female, it is a "handmaiden to the doctor", nurses wear a hat ... etc. Lots of these associations are not accurate anymore in modern nursing.

Inaccurate historical connotations are hard to shake. What do you think if the Nursing profession has a new name?

Some has suggested something like "medic" but that is taken already and it does not fully describe what nursing is all about.

For a new name, whatever it is, it has give the image of compaasion and caring, healing, plus other images that is accurate to the Nursing profession.

The poll tries to see if you think a new name for the Nursing profession will help or not.

If you do think a new name will help, suggestion for a new name?

0 Votes
Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

If a new name is picked ... whatever it is will be hated by a certain percentage of the people... people who value the positive aspects of our heritage (even as they recognize our problems.) The attempt would be yet another divisive movement within the profession at a time when we need more unity, not divisiveness. The fighting about it would cost a lot of energy and a lot of money changing all the wording in nurse practice acts, other laws, insurance policies, etc. It would cost society billions of dollars! ... all for the choice of a new name that will be unsatisfactory to a lot of people anyway. There are better ways to spend our time, our energy, and society's money.

Also, changing the word in an attempt to discard our problems will not actually change many of our problems. Most of the old problems would remain. Societal/cultural change does not come that easily.

We should focus our resources on identifying and changing the real, underlying causes of our problems -- not creating more (and expensive) divisions within the profession.

llg

0 Votes
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Semantics will not solve nursing's problems. Many of them come from within our divisive ranks and must be, therefore, worked from within!

0 Votes

We should focus our resources on identifying and changing the real, underlying causes of our problems -- not creating more (and expensive) divisions within the profession.

llg

there you go. it's like bandaging a wound that just won't heal.

0 Votes

Hi Dan,

Remember the "Murse" (male nurse) thing from your other thread?

What if the elderly female pt. went on with..."Moose??...You say you're a moose? Well, isn't that lovely. Actually, I'm not really a human either, I'm actually an Aardvark! And you see that lady across from me? She's really a giraffe! " ...as she reaches for her call button to alert security that she has a "moose-man" in her room.

Okay, I'll let it go now...te he...

Just joshin' with ya Dan...

0 Votes
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I wanted to be a nurse since I was 9 years old. I worked HARD to become one, I earned the title, and I don't care to be called anything else professionally. "Nurse" suits me just fine. :)

0 Votes
i wanted to be a nurse since i was 9 years old. i worked hard to become one, i earned the title, and i don't care to be called anything else professionally. "nurse" suits me just fine. :)

a rose by any other name is still a rose. and if it is a the title your concerned about. find another profession they have plenty of them!!!

i don't believe in the name game.

nursing is an honorable title for an honorable profession.

think if it this way. nursing= nurtering.

the mother feeds the baby by nursing and helps him/ her grow.

we nurse our patients back to an optimal state of health.

see the equation.

0 Votes
Semantics will not solve nursing's problems. Many of them come from within our divisive ranks and must be, therefore, worked from within!

That is true, semantics won't solve all nursing's problems. But it can make a bad situation worse (bad semantics, say we change the label of the profession to something even more divisive) or it can make a situation a little bit better (you still have problems, but maybe more bearable).

-Dan

0 Votes
Hi Dan,

Remember the "Murse" (male nurse) thing from your other thread?

What if the elderly female pt. went on with..."Moose??...You say you're a moose? Well, isn't that lovely. Actually, I'm not really a human either, I'm actually an Aardvark! And you see that lady across from me? She's really a giraffe! " ...as she reaches for her call button to alert security that she has a "moose-man" in her room.

Okay, I'll let it go now...te he...

Just joshin' with ya Dan...

Hmmmm... this could be a new thread in the Break Room like the 3 word game that is going on now. Use the above and we can see what animal and weird terms we ended with... Needs lots of imagination and a good dose of good "loose-association" :)

-Dan

0 Votes

In my other "murse" poll, someone brought up an interesting point which I think I share with everyone here and see what people think.

The interesting point is that in the airline industry, they did make a name change from stewardess to flight attendant. They really don't have to do it, they could have stick with "stewardess" and just call men in that profession "male stewardess" or just plain "stewardess". We might have some parallel here.

-Dan

0 Votes
Specializes in hospice.

Im confused...what else would we name it??????

0 Votes
Im confused...what else would we name it??????

I fooled around with different names. It is hard to come up with something alternative that is decent! Take a look at the "murse" poll where I tried (that should have been here, sorry).

To answer your question, personally, probably nothing else at this moment.

-Dan

0 Votes
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