Nurses don't do anything

No one's said it to my face, but I know that many members of the general public are under the impression that nurses don't do a great deal of work.

Some of the ignorance originates from TV programs such as 'House' and Grey's Anatomy that depict physicians as the ones providing procedural bedside care for one single patient all day long. People who watch too much TV might actually think the portrayals of nurses on these shows are realistic.

In addition, many people have the factory worker mentality: they feel that a nurse isn't working if (s)he is seated, using a computer, placing a telephone call, or flipping through a chart. These folks fail to realize that nurses are knowledge workers who aren't paid for what we do, but for what we know.

If the knowledge behind the task is not important, I invite certain uninformed members of the public to take their loved ones home and attempt to provide the care themselves. Otherwise, I basically ignore people who think I do nothing.

This is definitely a common misconception among the general public. When I worked night shift I would sometimes have patients apologize for waking me when they'd turn on their call light.

I got into a huge argument with a friend of a friend once about this. She was a poser who ran around telling everyone she was a nurse but she's actually a nurses aide or something. She said nurses don't do anything. We sit in front of the computer while the nurses aides do all of our real work for us. First of all I called her out on being a poser and a liar. I said no self respecting nurse would ever say she doesn't do anything. If nurses didn't do the assessment part of our jobs and dispense medication and evaluate outcomes, there would be no patient to take to the bathroom or bathe or chat with or whatever else nurses aides think we should be doing. A lot of our practice is the application of nursing science. That's a lot. I used to be a clerk and a tech. I felt the same way about nurses. Now that I am a nurse I have changed my whole perspective on the profession as a whole. Unfortunately a lot of what we do is charting but that doesn't mean we do nothing. But don't get me started. I am always so offended when people say that about my profession.

I'd love to see these ignorant people spend one day in our shoes! I don't degrade their job!

This won't be the last time someone makes a blanket statement about nurses that offends you.

Just saw this on another website I frequent. The post is kinda lame. The comments are the attitudes we battle against all of the time. I personally am done with feeding trolls, but definitely highlights the ideas portrayed in this thread.

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=95304

tell them when you work "you wont do anything" and lets see what happens to the patient.

If a nurses follows every direct order from a doctor there are many incidents where a patient can die. Might as well just get people who can do medication administration.

I noticed alot of patients that are in and out of the hospital know the full capabilities of "the nurse." They prize us because we are the person that is with them most of the time.

haven't had anyone say it quite that way but i heard several classmates say they had a rude awakening once they got into nursing school. they had no idea how much the nurse is responsible for!

Back when I worked in a nursing home as an aide, one of the other aides made me want to punch her in the mouth one night. She kept saying that nursing school was easy! All it is is just a little memorizing (never mind that she has never even gone to nsg school!)

One night, same nsg home, after telling a lady what we were studying in school at the time she says verbatim "WOW, you're much too smart for nursing school, you should go to medical school instead. "

These people already exist in several states. They're called medication aides in some states, and medication technicians in other locations. In the state where I reside, medication aides are CNAs who have completed a short training program on medication administration along with a clinical component.

Locally, there have been several patient deaths related to supratherapeutic INR levels due to receiving Coumadin. Since the medication aides have not received education or training on patient assessment, they could not pinpoint the telltale signs of overmedication with Coumadin (bleeding gums, bruises, hematuria, petechiae, etc).

Remove a nurse that allegedly doesn't do "anything"...and this is one of the results? Hmmm....

Those people can say what they want, they don't know what its like. Don't get too affected by these mindless remarks, there are other inspiring things for you to focus your mind with.